The Promise
by the frozen cherry
Summary: His daughter resigned herself to the fact that her father was leaving her to do his job. She stared straight into his eyes, her violet meeting his emerald green I will come back' he promised 'but this is something I have to do'-Post Hogwarts AU.It is H/G!
1. Prologue

'Ollie' he said, grasping the girl's small hands as he choked back tears 'I need you to be really brave'

'But Daddy, why do you have to go away?' his daughter asked, holding onto her father, begging him not to leave her.

'I need to make this world safe sweetheart' the man answered, pulling the girl into a quick tight hug.

'But why can't I go with you, this time?' she asked, tears running down her face.

The father kissed his daughter's forehead, before trying to untangle himself from her tight grasp. 'These are the last ones, Ollie and they are extremely dangerous, that's why you can't come with me'

'But I went to Egypt with you...'

'And I nearly lost you'

'So once you've caught them, you'll come back?' His daughter asked, resigning herself to the fact that her father was leaving her to do his job. She stared straight into his eyes, her violet meeting his emerald green.

'I will come back' he promised 'but this is something I have to do'


	2. Chapter 1

'Just leave me alone Potter' Ginny Weasley yelled angrily at her former boyfriend.

'Gin I'm sorr-'

'Don't say you're sorry' she said, interrupting him 'that his all you've really said to me since the battle, a battle which was two months ago!' She paused to catch her breath before carrying on 'You're sorry, I get that, but it does not erase the months of hurt and pain you caused me, wondering if you were alright and still alive. You broke up with me, you noble git! For my own protection, it did no good. I was still tortured by the Carrows because my family has been associated with you since you were eleven.'

Harry took a cautious step towards her, wanting to just take her in his arms and comfort her, make the pain go away and tell her how much he love her. Ginny seeing Harry's movement took a step back, away from him.

'Now look what has happened' she continued gesturing around the Great Hall, pointing at the place where the dead bodies had been. 'Fred's dead Harry! My brother is never coming back! And no apology is ever going to bring him back. I hate you Potter!' she cried wiping away a traitorous tear she stormed out of the hall, her long red hair swishing angrily behind her.

'Ginny please' Harry begged, running after her in the direction of the Gryffindor tower.

'Stay away from my sister Potter' came the voice of Charlie Weasley, the fearsome dragon handler, who was now blocking Harry's way 'didn't you hear her? She wants to be left alone.'

Harry admitted defeat; he knew it would not be the brightest thing to anger the already very angry Weasley brother. Harry turned around, away from the glaring red head and scanned the Hall. The rebuilding process had been going along smoothly, since it had started after the battle in May. Now two months on, teams of volunteers were on track to have repaired the majority of the castle by the time the school reopened in September.

Wanting to get away from the curious stares of the many workers who had witnessed Ginny's rant, Harry left the hall and headed outside into the grounds. They still bore marks from the battle, the quidditch pitch on the horizon was still a charred ruin, while the grass and trees were covered in scorch marks from that fateful night.

Harry sat at the base of the old oak tree next to the lake, a site of happier times, a place where had spent many pleasant times with Ginny during his sixth year at Hogwarts. That felt like a lifetime ago now. He stared out over the lake; he could see the giant squid in the distance, waving a tentacle in the air. The weather was mocking his mood. The sun was shining brightly on the July day, reflecting of the lake causing it to glitter.

Blinded by the light, bouncing off the lake, Harry looked up at the oak tree. Like the rest of the grounds it bore marks from the battle. A branch had snapped in half right above him and the tree was also missing half of its leaves, were a spell must have gone astray in the darkness.

As he looked up he could also make out his parents initials carved into the bark of the tree. Harry remembered he had been so excited when he discovered the LE+JP engraved in the tree. It was not very noticeable, having faded through the years but it did not matter to Harry; at the time it was physical proof that his parents had actually existed. His parents had carved their initials all those years ago, before the fate which awaited them, betrayed by someone they considered a close friend and then murdered in cold blood. The first people of many to die for him, mused Harry as he stared back down at his hands.

'Hey Harry' came a voice which knocked him out of his thoughts

'Wha- oh hey Luna' he replied looking up at the blond hairs witch as she sat down next to him.

'How are you Harry?' she asked

'I'm fine'

'No you're not' Luna responded calmly 'I can see it in your eyes, they betray you, you know. I can tell exactly what you are feeling from them'

'So tell me Luna, how am I feeling?' Harry asked tiredly, it had been a long day.

'Hurt, angry, sad and confused' she answered 'you should not bottle everything up Harry, its very bad for you'

'Luna I said I was fine'

'And I say that you're not, so tell me what's wrong'

'She was my reason for fighting' he began, telling Luna everything he had been bottling up since the end of the battle. 'She was the last thing I thought about before I died-'

'-wait, you died?'

'you didn't know that?'

'You must have missed that bit out of your explanation' she replied, still in shock about Harry's revelation. The explanation she was referring to was Harry's account of what he, Ron and Hermione had been up to for the past year. They had told their story after the memorial service and before Ron and Hermione went on their trip to restore Hermione's parents' memories.

'Anyway' Harry continued 'now she hates me'

'She doesn't, Harry' Luna said wisely 'not really' and she wrapped a comforting arm around his shoulders.

'Yes she does, didn't you hear her? It's all my fault' Harry cried, tears beginning to fall from his emerald eyes. 'Fred's death was my fault, all their deaths are my fault!' he stated gesturing to the new war memorial on the opposite side of the lake. The white marble was glistening in the sunlight with the names of the fallen engraved on it.

'It's not your fault' Luna said comfortingly, 'they died for what they believed in. They understood the risks but they wanted to fight evil just as much as you, Harry'

'Fred'

'Died laughing with a smile on his face'

'Colin'

'Died fighting the people who threatened his right to be part of the magical world.

'Remus and Tonks'

'Are still alive'

'They both got injured and Remus nearly died'

'but he's recovering from that curse Dolohov gave him' Luna sighed 'Harry, you need to be a bit more positive' She then took both of his hands into her small ones 'you need to move on, this part of your life is over, you have carried the weight of the world on your shoulders for so long, let it go'

'But...'

'No buts Harry' her silvery grey eyes reaching his.

Harry took in a deep breath and then slowly released it. He could feel a heavy burden lifting off his shoulders.

'Thanks Luna'

'No problem Harry, that's what friends are for' She replied with a smile. 'Let's get you home' she said standing up and helping Harry up 'there are far too many Nargles in this tree, for my liking'

'I thought Nargles only lived in mistletoe' Harry replied a small smile now on his face.


	3. Chapter 2

'What are you doing out here Luna?' Harry asked his friend who was currently sitting at the base of the oak tree. Harry got a sense of deja vu, Luna was sitting in the same position Harry had been sitting in a week previously. 'Your shift finished hours ago' Harry continued sitting down beside her.

Luna remained silent, staring out of the lake. Tear tracks could be seen on her face, visible in the moonlight. One tear meandered its way down quickly followed by another.

Harry turned to look at Luna closely; she did not look right. Luna was not wearing her radish earrings or her butterbeer cork necklace and her eyes seemed to have lost their dream like quality. They were empty.

'What's wrong Luna' Harry enquired softly

Still Luna did not reply.

Harry tried another tactic which might get through to her; he was desperate to find out what was making his friend so sad.

'Are there wrackspurts affecting your brain?' he asked 'or is it the wood nargles in this tree?'

Suddenly Luna turned to face Harry and shouted 'They don't exist!' her silvery grey eyes blazing.

'What?' Harry gasped in shock. This was not the Luna he was used to, her normal serene calm self had gone and in its place was this angry grief stricken girl.

'Wrackspurts and Nargles are not real' she stated, before bursting into a fresh set of tears.

'But you believed in them last week' Harry said in disbelief, as he placed a hesitant arm around the crying girl.

'Last week my father was alive' came the muttered response.

'Oh Luna, what happened? I thought your father had been released from Azkaban?' Harry asked, he could not comprehend that Xenophilius Lovegood, eccentric editor of the Quibbler was dead.

'It happened as they were releasing the last group of people, who had been put in Azkaban, the last set of muggleborns and other undesirables, like my father. Apparently he had gone through the last of the security checks and was about to disapparate, when a group of renegade Death Eaters swopped in and cursed him over the edge of the apparition point. He fell onto the rocks at the base of the prison and before anyone could get to his body the sea claimed it'.

'I'm so, so sorry Luna' Harry said comfortingly pulling his close friend into a tight hug, letting her cry into his shoulder. When his T-shirt was suitably damp, Luna pulled out of the hug.

'Thanks Harry' she said gratefully, giving him a week smile.

'No problem' he replied 'so is anyone investigating who attack your father?'

'No' she replied angrily, an emotion Harry had rarely seen on Luna's face, 'no one'

'But, why?' Harry asked in amazement, 'surely should be investigating these Death Eater attacks?'

'No one is at the moment' she replied 'I had a letter of condolence from the minister, saying he was sorry for this unfortunate incident, but due to his Auror department being heavily stretched, it was not going to be investigated anytime soon.'

'So they could investigate it in the future?'

'I doubt it, my father nearly handed you over to the Death Eaters, in his letter the Minister basically called him a traitor.

'He did not!'

'He did, he said he had betrayed the cause'

'But surely Kingsley understands that your father had to summon the Death Easters to keep you safe? I told Kingsley what happened!' Harry shook his head in disbelief. The new ministry had been in place for just over two months and this was already happening. Xenophilius Lovegood had done so much to help Harry, he had believed in Harry, during his nightmare fifth year, when no one else did.

'I feel so angry' Luna stated. 'I want to hunt and find Death Eaters. I want -'

'You want revenge' Harry finished for her. He knew the feeling well, it's wanted he wanted after Sirius had been killed. 'It's good to let your anger out' he told her 'I smashed up most of Dumbledore's office after Sirius died'.

Taking Harry's advice, Luna stood up slowly picking up a stone from the ground as she did, before straightening up and hurling it into the black lake. She put as much force and anger into her throw, however it did not travel far, landing with a splash, a couple of metres into the lake.

Harry watched as Luna hurled stone after stone into the lake, each time the throw getting stronger and stronger, until she finally hit the giant squid in the head. Eventually Luna finally collapsed in a heap beside him.

'That felt good' she remarked tiredly as she slumped down next to him.

Harry glanced at his watch, which had survived the war with only a couple of new scratches. He was late.

Luna, ever observant, noticed the frown appearing oin his face. 'Do you need to be somewhere?' she asked.

'I kind of promised To0nks I would be back in time to give Teddy a bath, he replied 'she has her hands full at the moment, looking after Teddy, Remus and her mother'

'Oh Harry, I'm sorry for keeping you'

'Don't worry Luna, Tonks will understand, you needed me'

Harry stood and pulled Luna up with him. 'Your next shift is on Friday afternoon, right?' Harry asked as they made their way to the entrance gates and the designated apparation points.

'Yeah' she replied 'see you then'

Harry was about to turn on the spot and go, when he noticed that Luna had turned back around in the direction of the school.

'Luna, where are you going?' he asked 'aren't you going home?'

'My home was destroyed, I have no home' she replied sadly, turning back round to face Harry. 'I've been staying in Ravenclaw tower.'

'Come and stay with me then' Harry said impulsively, she shouldn't be left alone. 'Come back with me to Grimmauld Place, its clean and I have plenty of rooms to spare.'

'Harry I can't'

'You are coming with me. Luna' Harry said forcefully 'Its not healthy for you to stay by yourself, you need some company and besides, Kreacher would be delighted if he had another person in the house to feed.

Harry reached out for her hand, held it tightly before turning on the spot. They landed with a jolt on the top step outside Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Harry touched the tip if his wand to the old wooden door. From the outside the house still looked dusty and inhabitable, with rust on the railing, moss growing up the windows and pain flaking off the door. However this was all part of its disguise. As Harry and Luna entered the house, it was light, bright and the smell of warm inviting food hit them.

'That smells so good' muttered Luna to herself

'Come on in' Harry beckoned, leading Luna through the hallway, pass the site where the portrait of the irritable Mrs Black had once hung, down a narrow flight of stairs and into the kitchen.

'Hey sorry I'm late' Harry announced to the three adults, who were sitting around the long table in the middle of the kitchen 'I had to look after Luna' he explained, gesturing to Luna who was stand in the doorway timidly eyeing the occupants of the warily.

'Come in, sit down dears' came the voice of Andromeda Tonks, she smiled at Harry and Luna as they sat down at the table.

'Teddy was sad to miss you at bath time' remarked Remus with a laugh, is wife, still wearing damp and bubble adorned clothes, by his side.

'I'm sorry to hear about your father' Tonks said to Luna, taking the girl's small hands into her own and giving them a squeeze.

'You knew?' Harry asked

'I only found out today, when I popped into the Auror department to check up on things. Do you know that Kingsley has kept Dawlish as head of the department?'

'No, wait -what!' Harry said shocked 'how could the minister keep him on, with what he has done? He was there when they went to capture Dumbledore you told me he was one of the people to do and find muggleborns to lock up in Azkaban. Why aren't you the new head of department?' he asked Tonks

'Because- 'Tonk's explanation was halted by the appearance of dinner, which was proudly brought into the kitchen by Harry's house elf, Kreacher. He was accompanied by Winky, who had followed Kreacher back to Grimmauld place and had now made it her home. She especially liked looking after little Teddy. The Lupins and Mrs Tonks were currently living in the old Black house, since their own houses had been destroyed by Death Eaters during the last year.

Everyone dug into the magnificent steak and kidney pie, which Kreacher had placed with care on the table. It tasted amazing, the pastry melted in Harry's mouth and the filling was very flavoursome. It was just what he needed after a hard day's work at Hogwarts. Harry noticed that Luna had temporarily put aside her anger and grief and was eating the pie with gusto. She quickly finished it before moving swiftly on to the treacle tart, which was made its way onto the table. Harry smiled, he remembered that Luna had a soft spot for puddings.

Harry was halfway through a mouthful of his favourite pudding, savouring the gorgeous taste, when a hysterical house elf bust into the kitchen.

'Master Harry, Master Harry come quickly!' Kreacher begged, his small arms waving

Harry jumped out of his seat, smashing his forkful of half eaten tart down as he hurried out of the kitchen. Thinking something was wrong with Teddy He followed the old elf up two flights of stairs until he reached the first floor landing. As he followed Kreacher into the tapestry room, he could hear the footfalls of the other members of the household, running up the stairs behind him.

'Kreacher, why have you brought be up here?' Harry asked his house elf, who was now pointing at a point on the wall.

'Kreacher was being a good elf, master' the elf began 'Kreacher was restoring the Black family tree just like you asked him to. Kreacher is fixing Master Sirius' name, when he is noticing something' Kreacher then pointed at the spot, next to the newly reinstated Sirius.

'What Kreacher?' Harry asked curiously, voicing the thoughts of everyone else, who had followed Harry up the stairs.

'Master Harry it looks like, Master Sirius had a child'

'But that's impossible!' Harry, Tonks and Remus exclaimed.

'It must be true' Andromeda Tonks told them, the tree never lies, it is charmed to grow every time a new black is born.

'Then why wasn't the child on here sooner?' Harry asked

'Because Sirius, like me, until recently was blasted off the tree. As you can see since I'm back on the tree, Dora and Teddy's names have appeared as well.'

'The child's name is Katarina' croaked Kreacher

'Do you know where she is?' came Luna's soft voice from the back of the group

'Kreacher does not know, where the little mistress is' the elf replied 'But she should be found, Kreacher will find her' he announced, before breaking down into a coughing fit.

'Winky appeared instantly at his side 'I is telling you Kreacher that you is old and needs to rest' she chastised him.

'But tis my duty to the house of Black to find the little mistress' came the wheezy reply

Harry suddenly had a brilliant idea. He had been looking for away to escape all the attention he was getting now he had defeated Voldemort, he could hardly go out in the wizarding world without being mobbed by admirers. He just wanted to get on with his life. He had thought about taking up McGonagall's offer and going back to school to complete his seventh year, but he knew that he just would not enjoy it, especially if he was not on speaking terms with Ginny and the rest of the Weasley's.

'Kreacher, why don't I go and search for this Katarina?' he suggested 'I'll bring her back here and then you can look after her'

'You would do that Master Harry?'

'I need a new adventure' he replied smiling

* * *

><p><em>Hi, a big thank you to everyone who has read this story so far adn to the people who have reviewed. I hope you like this chapter. Unfortunately I'm going away for a couple of weeks to a place were there is no internet access, so I will not be able to update, however I will have a lot of time to write! Thanks again!<em>

_~Cherry :)_


	4. Chapter 3

**Hi Cherry here! I'm back and with a nice new chapter. Now I know how annoying this is for readers, but I would really appreciate it if you took a couple of seconds to review this chapter. I'm not going to hold chapters to ransom, because I think that's stupid, I enjoy writing so I'll just continue to upload but it would be nice to get a couple more reviews.  
><strong>

** I came back from two weeks without internet, eager to find out what people made of the last chapter and there was nothing :( I know I uploaded it at a really bad time, Sunday lunchtime (UK time) when people are least likely to be on the internet and I know there are thousands of Harry Potter stories out there, but it was rather disheartening. Anyway, I did a lot of writing on holiday, I just need to type it all up! So you can expect some regular updates, probably the next one will be on Friday. I should stop all this moaning now before you all hit the back button on your computers and never read this story again...  
><strong>

The evening sun shone warmly through the old windows into Molly Weasley's busy kitchen. Molly prided herself in making an effort when she cooked every meal, but the amount she was cooking tonight, wouldn't have looked out of place out of place at a King's banquet, for tonight was no ordinary family meal. Tonight was her only daughters coming of age birthday dinner and Molly was determined to make it memorable.

She had cooked Ginny's favourite things and was hoping to bring a bit of joy into her children's lives; many were still feeling the effects of the war. Ron and Hermione had only arrived back from Australia, after an unsuccessful search for Hermione's parents, Percy was finding his footing at this new ministry, still feeling guilty over his desertion of his family and George... George was lost without his twin. The whole family was coming, Arthur had taken the evening off work, Bill and Fleur had delayed their already delayed honeymoon to come and Charlie had flown in from Romania. He had literally flown in, travelling all the way from the dragon sanctuary, by broom, narrowly missing muggle aeroplanes.

Molly shook her head silently as she thought about her second eldest son, he was completely wild. He had no interest in the women she tried to set him up with, he was completely obsessed by dragons.

Thinking about Charlie made Molly think about another one of her sons, who always seemed to find danger. Well he was not hers biologically but she loved him like one. She was so delighted when Harry and Ginny began dating and was devastated when they broke up. Ginny and Harry were perfect for each other, they brought out the best in each other and now it was over. Molly did not know the details, she had hoped that after the war they would get back together, finding comfort in each other, but Charlie had recounted to her as he passed through the Burrow before going back to his beloved dragons, Harry and Ginny's argument. Ginny had cried for days afterwards, she did not know whether to go and hunt down the boy who had hurt her daughter or find him and give him a hug similar to the one she had just given Ginny. She knew he would be hurting just as much as her.

However, now Harry had disappeared. She had heard this via Augusta Longbottom, who had been informed by her grandson Neville. Harry had failed to turn up for his shift at Hogwarts, shortly before his birthday. He had left at large sum of money with Professor McGonagall to help fund the repairs and had disappeared. Molly wanted to ask the Lupins if they had seen them, but Nymphadora seemed very busy at the moment looking after her family. They were going to come tonight, but it was a full moon.

Molly brushed her thoughts about Harry from her mind; it was her daughter's day today. She could not believe that her baby girl was now an adult, where had all the years gone? Little Gin-bear had grown up and in her place was a mature, confident young woman, who had gone through enough problems to last a lifetime. Humming to herself, Molly began to place various dishes on the old dining room table, until it was groaning under the immense weight.

'Dinner's ready' Molly called out into the garden, she watched as they came in, making a beeline to the table, their eyes opening wide at all the food, smiles appearing on their faces. One by one, the family presented Ginny with a present. An opal bracelet from Ron and Hermione, A pair of dragon hide chaser gloves from Charlie, a voucher for Weasley Wizard Wheezes from George and the Prewet family necklace, to name a few.

'This is nice' Molly sighed sitting at the heads of the table, her husband presiding over the other end. As their children started eating noisily, Molly was transported back in time, this was what it was like before the war. However there was one painful absence. The attendance of Fleur and Hermione could not disguise the gaping hole Fred's death had caused. His place at the table, next to his brother George had been left empty. No one could fill it.

'Does anyone know where Harry is' Ron asked innocently, causing the whole table to fall silent. The other siblings looked at each other nervously; no one wanted to tell Ron that his best friend had gone missing.

'It's just that we wanted to give him his birthday present' Hermione continued, her smile faltering as she noticed the tension in the room. 'What is it?' she asked 'What's he done now, I'm surprised he's not here'

'No one's seen Harry, since before his birthday' Arthur Weasley said finally, after long pause.

'What do you mean not seen?' she demanded anxiously, she was worried about her friend, he could be in danger.

'He was pestering Gin' Charlie answered 'so I told him to stay away'

'What!' Ron shouted as he and his girlfriend exchanged worried glances, this did not sound good

'Ginny did not want to talk to him, so I told him to leave her alone' Charlie replied clarifying his previous statement to the two teens. 'I distinctly remember Ginny telling Harry that she hated him'

No, no, no!' Hermione said, shaking her head in despair. 'He's going to do something really stupid now, Ginny means everything to him'

'He's probably moping in Grimmauld Place' Percy suggested.

'I don't thinks that's where he is' Hermione stated quietly, she knew her friend better than most, he would do something extreme. 'Do you remember that Christmas at Grimmauld place, after Mr Weasley was attacked?'

The family, apart from Fleur nodded, remembering that awful winter where they nearly lost the Weasley Patriarch to a fatal snake bite. 'Harry thought we all hated him then, because he thought he was possessed by Voldemort and had caused Mr Weasley's injury. He blanked all of us except for Ginny, who finally got through to him'.

'So we need to find him?' Mrs Weasley asked, thinking about her poor adopted son

'It's too late for that' Ron remarked sadly

'If Harry does not want to be found, then he won't be found. We've just been on the run for a year, if the whole of wizarding Britain could not find him, then we stand no chance, Harry will reappear when he wants to'

With that final statement, from Hermione, the table remained silent for the rest of the meal, Harry's disappearance weighing heavily on their minds, especially Ginny's. She no longer felt like celebrating her birthday. She wanted to turn back time and take back those hurtful things she said to him. She knew what Hermione said was true, Harry would be gone for a long time and there was nothing they could do.

Suddenly a loud _crack_ sounded in the room, causing many people to up and reach for their wands. They then sat, frozen in shock staring at the old house elf that had appeared in the Burrow's kitchen.

Kreacher, startled but the wands pointing at him and the ten pairs of eyes staring at him, began to relay his message in his normal croaky voice. 'Master Harry asked Kreacher to deliver this present' he held up a long thin parcel, 'on the day, on which Miss Ginny Weasley comes of age'. Kreacher then placed to present on the table. 'He also asked Kreacher to check if his two friends, Ron and Hermione were back safely and to let them know that he is ok'. His mission completed Kreacher lifted his small bony hand and was about to disapparate when he was interrupted.

Hermione had managed to unfreeze herself, from the shock of Harry's elf appearing in the Burrow. 'When is your master coming back' she asked Kreacher kindly.

Kreacher turned to the muggleborns witch with a smile, 'Kreacher is not knowing what goes through master Harry's head' he replied 'who knows when he is returning home, but I am thinking it is good he has gone away, he needs to escape for a while. ' With that he clicked his fingers and disappeared just as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving the occupants of the room to process the information the house elf had just given them.

'What is it?' George finally asked, breaking the silence as he gestured to Ginny's present.

Ginny carefully unwrapped the gift under the curious eyes of the rest of her family. 'It's a broom' she answered, staring down at it in awe.

'It's not just a broom Gin' Bill said, looking at the present closely, 'I think it's the latest Firebolt model. Harry has given you an international standard broom!'

Later that night Ginny alone in her bedroom, having snuck upstairs before her mother could make her do the drying up. She sat down on her bed with her new broomstick sitting carefully on her lap. Even after all the hateful things she had said to him, he had still kept the promise he had made to her, all those months ago under the old oak at Hogwarts. She was telling him about her ambition to play professional quidditch and he had promised that he would buy her a broom for her 17th birthday, so she could pursue her dreams.

It was beautiful object, sleek, smooth and shiny, like any new broom. However she had noticed earlier there was something unique about it. Engraved around the handle of the broom, where galloping horses, to match her patronus.

'Expecto patronum' she whispered, thinking of those golden days by the lake at Hogwarts and that stunning first kiss. An animal blossomed out of the tip of the wand. However it was not the silver wispy horse she was expecting, it was a doe. Ginny started crying as it pranced around the room, before fading into the darkness. It had chanced to match Harry's, it was as is her soul was telling her that she was still completely in love with one Harry James Potter and she was so stupid that in her grief she let him go.

'Harry where are you?' Ginny cried into her pillow that night 'I'm so sorry, I love you, please come back!'

However at this point in time, Harry was not in a position to go back to Ginny. He was still on the hunt for the mysterious Katarina. He had been joined on his quest by Luna, would said she had nothing left for her at home and that Harry needed her. This was true, Harry did need the company. Luna was slowly returning back to her dreamlike ways, in her mannerisms and what she said, but her eyes had lost their spark and Harry doubted it would be back any time soon. Travelling with Luna was different to the hunt for Horcruxes, Harry thought as they walked along a narrow mountain path. She was prone to violent mood swings like Ron and she was not as closed minded as Hermione. She listened to his ideas with an open mind and added her own thoughts as well.

Most importantly she made Harry laugh with tales of her childhood. How, she had once tried to climb pear tree next to her house, so she could set a trap for the polka dotted lesser spotted Wrackspurts and had ended up pouring the orange slime on her father's head instead. Harry had learnt a lot about Luna through their investigations; she helped him take his mind off his troubles as she opened up to Harry and told him about her own. Harry learnt about her failed relationship with Neville. 'I really, really liked him' she had sadly remarked 'but he did not understand me'. Harry had also learnt that her dream was to be the next great witch naturalist. 'I want to be the female Newt Scaramander' she had told Harry one night 'I want to discover new animals and tell people about them'.

Luna was elaborating on her plans for the future when Harry noticed a building hidden in the mountains straight ahead.

'Luna, I think this it' he announced, cutting across her monologue about how she was going to revise Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

'Oh- um, I think your right' she replied brightly.

'Come one then!' Harry said hurrying in front of her, they were so close now.

They had narrowed Katarina's location to the south-west of France. They had had some help from Remus, who knew all his best friend's hiding places and had found Sirius' diary. Sirius had mentioned quite a lot in his diary, a woman call 'Rina, whom he met in France and had gone back to see shortly before moving into Grimmauld Place. Harry and Luna had then travelled to the French Ministry of Magic and after a lot of arguing were allowed to view the birth records for every magical child born in France. They had discovered a Katarina, born at St Cecilia's Orphanage at the right time and had set out to find it.

It was based on the outskirts of a small village in the Pyrenees and as Harry got closer, he could see it was half built into the mountains. Harry reached up and knocked on the big wooden door. It opened slowly and the two teens were led inside by a novice nun towards the mother superior's office.

'I got your letter and we do have a girl called Katarina here' the Mother Superior told Harry in a thick French accent. 'Her name is Katarina Cecilia, after her mother and the patron saint of this convent and orphanage.'

'Can you tell me anything else about her?' Harry asked eagerly

The Mother Superior gave Harry a cold stare 'her mother was brought here by a shepherd who discovered her on the mountain on New Year's Eve. She had fallen and gone into labour. We did the best we could but she died from her injuries soon after child was born, all we found out was her name from the necklace around her neck. It was a pendent with inscribed on the back, '_Katarina Je t'adore Sirius_''

Harry and Luna exchanged triumphant smiles, they had found her!

'Mr Potter I must ask, why you are interested in the child?'

Harry hesitated, sensing that she might not let him take her; he reached into his jean pocket and grabbed his wand. '_Imperio'_ he muttered, feeling very bad, pointing the wand at Nun. Her eyes went blank.

'Right this way Mr Potter' she said leading the relieved Harry and Luna towards the orphanage.

A short time later, after a quick memory charm on the Nuns, Luna, Harry and Katarina were off. Luna was leading the way back to the cave where spent the previous night, followed by Harry with Katarina perched on his shoulders. She was small for her age, probably owing to her premature birth, with dark curly hair like her fathers and inquisitive, stunning violet eyes. She was enjoying the fresh air and the view from on top of Harry's now aching shoulders. As they neared the cave the babble of baby French began to halt as she began to fall asleep, her head lolling on top of Harry's.

As they entered the cave, Luna quickly transfigured a nearby rock into a pillow. Harry carefully placed the small child down and covered her with the blanket Luna had produced from one of her pockets. It turned out that Hermione was not the only one who could perform undetectable extension charms, Luna's pockets were filled with Katarina's shrunken possessions and other necessities.

'What are we going to do now?' Luna asked staring down at the sleeping child 'We can't take her back home'

'Why not?' Harry asked

'Harry the surname Black still holds dark connotations in Wizarding Britain, Sirius may have been innocent, but for over a decade he was one of the most hated men in Britain. People also remember that Bellatrix was a Black and Narcissa is one too. The name Black is linked to Death Eaters.

'Well I'll adopt her, she can be Katarina Potter, no one will know'

'That's a good idea Harry, but think about it, if you go back now, the press will be hounding you, everyone will be curious as to why you suddenly have a child and it will be a nightmare' came Luna's voice of reason

'You're right Luna' Harry sighed tiredly 'So where should I go? We can't live in a cave!'

'Kreacher!' Luna said summoning the old house elf, who appeared with a crack immediately. He bowed to Harry and Luna before noticing the sleeping child in the corner.

'Is this the little mistress?' he asked walking towards her, his eyes welling up with tears.

Harry nodded as Kreacher bent down and stroked Katarina's cheek with a bony finger. 'She looks like master Sirius did when he was small' he muttered before turning back to face Luna and Harry.

'Kreacher, I need you advice' Harry began as he explained his dilemma.

'Miss Luna is correct Master Harry' the old house elf said finally. 'You cannot go back home, not at the moment.'

'Then where can we go?' Harry asked

'Kreacher will take you to the old Black summer house by the sea in Italy, all respectable wizarding families had houses abroad, you can live there, Kreacher and Winky will clean it up for you'

Harry nodded, it sounded like a good idea. 'Did the Potter's have a house abroad' he asked Kreacher curiously.

'No' Kreacher replied shortly,'They is having the manor in Somerset and a house in Scotland, which they is selling to the McGonagall Clan years ago' he replied. 'Now Master Harry, I is also agreeing with Miss Luna, it is a good idea if you adopt the child'

Harry nodded again, he felt quite powerless, he could do nothing but agree and hope he was a good father, he needed to keep the lovely child, who was sleeping in to corner so peacefully, safe.

'You'll be a good father Harry' Luna said reassuringly, as if she sensed his fears. 'So what are you going to call her?'

'What!'

'Master Harry, it is tradition, when a child of one magical house is adopted into another, the child is given a new name, to have in their new life. It will also keep the little Mistress safe from those who what to harm her.'

'Ok, right um...' Harry though hard, the only experience he had with naming things was his old owl, Hedwig and that was a name he had found in the history of magic textbook! 'She should keep the name Katarina' he said finally 'because it was her mother's name and she can have a new middle name to replace Cecilia'

'How about Lily, after your mother?' Luna suggested

Harry shook his head, 'she just does not look like a Lily to me' he muttered. Children called Lily, he pictured having bright red hair, or green eyes. Katarina had neither.

'How about Olwen?' Luna suggested quietly, after they had discussed many different options.

'Katarina Olwen' Harry said trying the two names out together, 'it works! How did you think of that name, I've never heard of it before?'

'It's welsh and it was my mother's' Luna replied sadly 'you could shorten it to Ollie?'

'It's perfect Luna, perfect!' Harry cried, trying not to wake the newly named child up as he gave her a big hug in celebration. 'I was thinking maybe Molly, after Mrs Weasley, but Olwen sounds so nice.'

Luna gave Harry a small smile 'who says she can't have two middle names? She whispered before she curled up under another blanket and fell asleep

Before he too fell asleep in the cave, Harry bent over his new daughter. He kissed her forehead as he whispered in her ear 'Katarina Olwen Molly Potter, you are named after some extraordinary witches and you're going to be one too. I promise to look after you and love you and I promise to keep you safe'.


	5. Chapter 4

**I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, alerted or favourited the last chapter. I made me very happy. I would like to just say, that though in the first chapters it did look like it was heading to a Harry/Luna pairing, let me clarify this, this story is a Harry/Ginny story, though it it not heavily romantic. Thanks again and I hope you enjoy this chapter! ~Cherry  
><strong>

**11 years later**

Minerva McGonagall looked up from her desk in the Headmistresses office of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. She sighed tiredly; this was the start of her eleventh year as headmistress, she could not believe the years had gone so quickly. Hogwarts had changed a lot since the end of the war, inter house rivalries were still there, but they were not as large as they had been. The students seemed to get along with each other better than their predecessors.

The same could not be said for the rest of the wizarding world. There were still the prejudices held by people who had fought in the last war. Many wizards did not give the 'bad' wizarding families a chance to redeem themselves and you were shunned if you had not supported Kingsley's new ministry. Minerva had had high hopes of the new ministry, but they had soon faded. Lots of bright young wizards and witches were not being given positions because they wanted change. Kingsley had been in power for eleven years and showed no sign of moving from his position as minister for magic.

The new first years at Hogwarts were the children who had been born during the last war and therefore it was a very small year group, since many couples did not want to bring a child into a world filled with uncertainty. The headmistress gave a small snort, as she recorded the houses which the new first years had been placed in; the war had practically been won by children.

Suddenly the fire in her office flashed green, indicating that someone was coming through, She wondered who wanted to speak to her at this time at night, Minerva just hoped it was not Kingsley. As she stood up to inspect the fire, two people came tumbling out of the fireplace and landed in a heap on the cold stone floor.

The smaller of the two gave a small cough as she disentangled herself from the other person. 'Gabby, why do I have to come here?' she muttered brushing the soot off her new school robes.

'Because Ollie' her blond haired companion replied 'as I have already said, your father wanted you to come here, he came here and he believes that this is the best place for you at the moment'

'But...' What Ollie was about to say was interrupted by McGonagall's cough.

'May I ask what you are doing in my office?' she politely enquired

'Sorry Madam' the blond haired witch, Gabby, replied. 'My name is Gabrielle Delacour, you might remember my older sister Fleur, and this is' she gestured to the small black haired girl.

'My name is Ollie' came the muttered response. Someone's not very happy to be here, thought McGonagall.

'You still have not answered by question, what are you doing in my office?'

'Oh right' Gabrielle said apologetically, no trace of accent in her voice. 'Ollie's father thought it would be best if Ollie came to Hogwarts this year.'

'I don't see why' the girl in question mumbled.

'He believed that this was one of the safest places in the wizarding world' Gabby continued 'she could be protected and kept safe here'

'And who is her father? The Headmistress asked curiously

Ollie raised her head and looked the old professor in the eye. 'Harry Potter is my father' she announced proudly, her violet eyes flashing, daring the headmistress to disagree with her.

'And what year are you in?' she asked, trying to get over her shock, how was it possible that this was Harry's daughter? How could she be a Potter? She looked the girl closely. Ollie did have some Potter traits: she was quite small and had black unruly hair. However normally a Potter's hair was not curly and those eyes, they were not a Potter's eyes, dark violet with flecks of silvery grey.

'I should be staring my third year, professor' Ollie replied, slightly wary that this old woman was staring at her so intensely.

'Will it be ok for Ollie to join that year Professor?' Gabby interjected anxiously 'she has been at Beaubatons for that last year and despite what my sister says, I don't think the curriculum is too different'

'It should be fine, Miss Delacour' McGonagall replied tiredly. She had hoped for a peaceful year, but she knew it was not to be. Not with a Potter at Hogwarts.

'Thank you Professor' Gabrielle replied. 'I must be off now Ollie' she added turning to the girl in question and giving her a tight hug. 'Everything will be alright' she whispered, assuring the nervous Ollie. 'Stay safe and try to keep out of trouble' she added before walking to the fireplace and disappearing into the green flames.

An awkward silence was left in the office. Ollie stared around the room she had been abandoned in. Portraits covered every inch of the walls, the occupants asleep apart from the old man in the frame above the desk; he had a long white beard and bright blue eyes which were framed by half moon glasses. With a twinkle in his eye he gave Ollie a small smile before grabbing a small yellow sweet next from the stand next to him and closing his eyes so he too appeared asleep.

'That's Professor Dumbledore' McGonagall remarked noticing what Ollie was staring at 'He was one of my predecessors and the Headmaster when your father was here'

'Predecessors?' Ollie asked curiously

'The other one was Professor Snape' McGonagall said pointing to the portrait next to Dumbledore's. 'Things were very confusing during the last war' She continued 'Many people considered him to be the enemy and not a really Headmaster of Hogwarts. It was your father that actually campaigned for him to have a portrait here'

'Yeah, my father told me about him' Ollie replied 'he said Snape was the bravest man he ever knew' The hooked nosed occupant of the frame gave a loud snort, showing that he was only feigning sleep and was really listening in to conversation. Ollie thought that's what the rest of the portraits were doing as well, nosy people!

'What happened between Professor Snape and your father still remains a mystery' McGonagall said 'They seemed to hate each other when he taught Harry potions. However soon after the war, just before he disappeared he was in my office, giving money to fund the repairs and demanding that Professor Snape's portrait should be added to this office. Anyway...' she said snapping herself out of the past,' before you can get sorted, I need to have your records'. McGonagall then conjured a seat in front of the desk and gestured for Ollie to sit down.

'Right then' the headmistress remarked, brandishing her eagle feather quill over the records book. 'Full name?'

'Katarina Olwen Molly Potter'

'Katarina?'

'My first name, but please don't call me that!' Ollie begged 'No one calls me Katarina, everyone calls me Ollie, Katarina's such a mouthful'

'Date of Birth?' McGonagall then asked

'31st December 1995'

'Place of birth'

'St Cecilia's Convent, somewhere in France'

McGonagall paused looked curiously at Ollie before asking 'Parents?'

'Harry James Potter'

'No mother?'

'Not unless you count, Aunt Luna, my Godmother' came Ollie's reply.

'Blood status?'

'Don't know' Ollie replied 'is it important?' she added

'Not really' McGonagall replied 'It's just a box to fill in. Now onto the sorting' she announced. The Headmistress levitated an old battered hat towards the desk, Ollie looked at it apprehensively.

'Your father told about the four houses at Hogwarts' McGonagall asked

Ollie nodded nervously; he had told her about the houses but had not really mentioned how you were put into them. McGonagall then placed the hat on Ollie's head.

'Is it next year already' It asked as it awoke, Ollie jumped at the sudden voice appearing on top of her head, 'but I have not composed a new song!' it panicked.

'Its ok' the tired Headmistress assured the hat gently 'we just have a late arrival that needs sorting'

'Right' the hat said 'right' it repeated thoughtfully, as it set itself comfortably on top of Ollie's head. 'Ollie Potter, how curious, I was not expecting to see a Potter so soon. Ah!' It gasped 'Oh that's interesting, never expected to see one of your family again, I thought you were all gone, well were to put you?' it murmured 'difficult, very difficult. Should you go where the rest of your family went? That house would make you a great witch'

'I want to be in the house my father was in' Ollie whispered earnestly

'Like your father, Eh? You want to break the family tradition just like him?'

'They are not my family!' Ollie stated gritting her teeth

'Oh, you've got his temper' the hat remarked, ignoring Ollie's comment. 'You are brave there is no denying that, well if you're sure, better be GRYFFINDOR!' it roared causing many items in the office to shake.

McGonagall, after she had placed the old hat back in its resting place gestured for Ollie to stand up. 'Come with me' she said with a smile, clearly glad that Gryffindor house had a new member. She led Ollie out of her office, down a spiral staircase and along various corridors. 'I'll take you to the Gryffindor tower and alert your new head of house about your arrival. What about your belongings?' she asked

'I think Ribbons is bringing them' Ollie replied panting slightly at the effort to keep up with the older woman's brisk strides. Suddenly they spotted a figure walking towards them.

'Uncle Remus!' Ollie squealed as ran towards the man at the end of the corridor. 'What are you doing here?' she asked as she buried herself in his arms, glad to find something familiar in this strange gloomy castle.

'Ollie, I see you know Professor Lupin, your new Head of House and Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher' McGonagall said catching up the pair.

'Yes Professor' Ollie mumbled pulling herself out of the hug.

The two professors then led Ollie to Gryffindor tower and the third year girl's dormitory, where she collapsed in a tired heap on the bed which had appeared in the corner.

'So you know Ollie?' McGonagall asked Lupin, as they headed back towards the staff quarters.

'Yes' he replied 'she's my unofficial goddaughter' when the headmistress gave him a questioning glance, he continued 'I could not make the naming ceremony. Luna Lovegood was with Harry anyway but I was still recovering from the battle and was unfit to travel abroad. Harry though it was only right that I was godfather and protector to his daughter, since he is godfather to Teddy.'

'You did not know she was coming here?'

'No, I thought Harry decided it would be better if she went to Beaubatons, where she was less conspicuous'

'Less conspicuous?'

'Harry taught there for a couple of years, so everybody knew her as _Ollie_ not as _Potter's daughter._ Who brought her here?' he asked

'A Gabrielle Delacour' McGonagall replied

'Oh no' came Lupin's worried response

'What is it?'

'It means that both Harry and Luna are unable to look after and protect Ollie at this point in time. Harry is probably off doing something extremely dangerous but important and Luna is away, probably on one of her mad quests, so Ollie has been sent here. Harry thinks it is one of the safest places on Earth, especially since you are headmistress and he trusts you.'

'I'm flattered'

'Something big is coming Minerva' he muttered 'Harry must have been gone for a long time for Gabby to bring her here' and with he entered his private rooms, leaving McGonagall to ponder on what had been said about her new student.

'Wake up, wake up!' came a loud voice in Ollie's ear.

'Whazgoingon?' she asked wiping the sleep from her eyes, before gazing around the circular room, her eyes landing on her belongings at the end of the bed and then the person who had brought her out of her dreams.

'You're Ollie, the new girl?' the girl leaning over her asked

'Yeah'

'I'm Heather Brown and Professor Lupin asked me to show you and help you around Hogwarts, until you gain your bearings' Heather said with a smile 'and right now we need to get down to the Great hall before we miss breakfast!'

Ollie stared around the Great Hall in awe, it was a magnificent room with its enchanted ceiling and enormous piles of food. She had never seen so much food in her life. As she cautiously buttered a piece of toast, aware of the curious stares at her presence she noticed her Uncle Remus, making his way down the table.

'Ah Ollie, glad you made it down to breakfast, I need to give you your timetable, the others got theirs last night but I did not know what options you wanted to take.'

'Does this school offer Arithmancy and Ancient Runes?' she asked taking a bite out of her now cold soggy toast'

'Luna didn't make you take care of magical creatures?' he asked with a smile/

'No Unc- Professor Lupin' she replied correcting herself as he handed her, her new timetable.

'Dad, I mean Professor, did you just say Ollie?' A blue haired boy asked from down the table. Damn his oversensitive wolf like hearing, Ollie thought.

'Teddy, your Uncle Harry has sent Ollie here' Professor Lupin replied. Teddy grinned at this information, knowing how he could embarrass the person he thought as his older sister.

'Ollie!' he screamed as he hurtled down the table until he reached the embarrassed girl. 'Ollie Potter, what are you doing here?' he asked loudly attracting the attention of almost everyone in the school.

As school stared at her, Ollie buried her head in her hands, her plan to have an inconspicuous start to the school year had been foiled by one Teddy Remus Lupin. She would get her revenge!


	6. Chapter 5

Gabrielle Delacour, the beautiful quarter-veela, was currently in a most unglamorous position. She was kneeling on a cold stone floor, her long blond hair swept up in a messy bun and her ear pressed was tightly to the door as she picked her way into a locked room.

'You would have thought that after the countless times we have broken in here, they would put more than an anti-unlocking charm on the door' she remarked to her companion, who was standing guard next to her. 'All those charms have been made useless by a simple hair pin' and with that she pulled the said hair pin out of the lock triumphantly, stood up put it back in her hair before dusting herself off and announcing 'we're in!' Wands out Gabrielle and her partner slowly opened the door before creeping inside.

'The Gringotts security cameras are showing that the guards have just discovered the knocked out guard at the back entrance' Dennis Creevy, her companion said 'nice punch by the way'.

'Well it's nice to unleash the Veela inside me once in a while' Gabby remarked with a grin.

'It looks like they are heading towards the vaults' Dennis told her looking up from a small screen.

'How stupid are they?' Gabby stated as she made her way across the room towards a shelf in the corner, from which she pulled a book entitled _The Dawlish Family Records. _'You said they were headed towards the vaults?' she asked.

Dennis nodded, glancing at the screen again 'towards the high security vaults it seems.'

'Oh I love your hacking skills!' Gabby exclaimed 'That gives us around 15 minutes, let's get the work' and with a flourish she opened the book and looked at the most recent entries.

'Well that's interesting' she remarked pointing at one entry, 'The date of the money coming into the Dawlish vault from the Sewlyn Vault coincides with the date of the last breakout from Azkaban, and would you look at that, there's money from the grateful escapee as well' pointing at the entry detailing 10 000 galleons being transferred from the Carrow vault to the Dawlish one. 'Can you see a pattern emerging now Dennis?' she asked 'This is too much to be a coincidence'

'The date of transactions into the Dawlish vault from the Sewlyn vault almost always coincides with a breakout form Azkaban, first Dolohov then Lestrange then Rockwood and now Carrow.' Dennis said gritting his teeth and clenching his fists. He could still remember what horrible things the Carrows had done that year at Hogwarts

'But who is this mysterious Sewlyn, I thought they all were killed during the battle of Hogwarts?'

'Apart from one' Dennis remarked bitterly 'one toad, which came into possession of her Sewlyn inheritance when she was released from prison five years ago, by none other than Head Auror John Dawlish.'

'We have all the proof we need, Harry had a hunch it was her who was coordinating all the attacks, when Dolohov mentioned back in Egypt, that the 'Mistress wanted to eradicate all half breeds'. Now we can get Dawlish as well. Finally I will get my revenge for what happened to Maman and Papa' Gabby said wiping away a stray tear as she thought about her dead parents. Dennis pulled his fiancée into a hug and kissed the top of her head.

'We can do this sweetheart' he stated encouragingly, giving her a comforting sqeeze.

'Right then' Gabby said snapping herself out of her sad thoughts 'let's take the photos and then we will be off' she began to laugh quietly

'What's so funny?' Dennis asked peering out from behind his camera

'It's just that, Fleur and Bill always go on about how Gringotts is impossible to break into, I get that it is extremely difficult to break into the vaults, but for us, the records room, is where the real gold is and it has no security!' She looked at her watch 'If they're getting any quicker, I suggest that we'd best be off' holding out her hand to Dennis. 'Winky!' she called out. The female house elf appeared out of nowhere. 'You is calling miss' she stated.

'We need your help to get out Winky, you know what to do' Gabby said grapping hold of the elf's out stretched hand.

'Ok miss' came the reply and with that they were apparated out of Gringotts, past the Anti-apparition wards and to safety, leaving some baffled guards behind them.

* * *

><p>As Ollie Potter approached the end of her first week at Hogwarts, the more she looked forward to her first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. She knew that Professor Lupin would not fall of a stack of books, like Professor Flickwick had done or, choke on some crystallised pineapple like Professor Slughorn, at the mention of her name. He would treat her normally, like any other student.<p>

'Don't sit down and put your books away' Professor Lupin announced as he walked into the classroom. 'I thought we would started you third year with a fun practical lesson grab your wands and follow me!' the class of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws began murmuring excitedly. Lupin led the class out of the classroom along a corridor, up three fights of moving staircases. Along the way he asked his pupils about their holidays and listened to their suggestions about what he might be getting them to do.

'How's your Aunt?' he asked when he got to Heather Brown, who was walking along side Ollie.

'Good Sir' she replied with a smile 'I spent the holiday with Lavender, Seamus and baby Niamh'

'And how is Niamh?' he asked curiously

'Perfectly healthy sir'

'Why did the Professor ask you about your Aunt' Ollie whispered after Lupin had moved on to a pair of Ravenclaws two rows behind them.

'My Aunt Lavender was attacked by Fenir Greyback, the mad werewolf during the battle at Hogwarts. She was helping defend the castle against the Death Eaters when he attacked her, even though it was not a full moon. Professor Lupin, who taught her back when she was a third year, helped her get used to her new wolfish characteristics'

'So she's not a full werewolf?' Ollie asked curiously

'No, she just has a super sense of hearing and smell. She also gets a bit moody around the time of the full moon. It was a nightmare for Seamus, her husband when she was pregnant with Niamh. She was moody at the full moon and then hormonal the rest of the time!' Heather gave a small laugh. 'Anyway, she now campaigns for werewolf rights along with Hermione Weasley' Heather added proudly.

Not knowing who this Hermione Weasley was, 'So you live with your Aunt then?' Ollie asked eager to find out more about her new friend.

'Yes' Heather replied sadly 'My mother, Hyacinth had me young. I was an unwanted pregnancy, the result of a drunken one night stand. She does not know who my father is. Aunt Lavender has looked after me every since Gran died. Mum is away a lot of the time, pursuing a modelling career in Milan, I think she's quite successful now.'

Ollie gave Heather a small comforting smile 'I can identify with that' she said 'I don't really know who my mother was; she died when I was born. I only know she had this necklace' and she showed Heather the pendent. 'Dad's great, he's the best Dad I could have ever wished for, but he can be away a lot of the time, if he has a mission and I get left with Aunt Luna, my Godmother.'

'That can't be so bad?' Heather asked as they approached the top of the stairs.

'It wasn't that bad, Aunt Luna is great, until she met Rolf Scaramander' Ollie gave a little shudder 'He is horrible and I refused to have him near me, we got into a huge fight, which was horrible because Luna never gets angry and she left with him to go and discover some new creatures, leaving me alone, with no one responsible enough to look after me, so I ended up here.'

Their conversation was interrupted by their arrival at the empty classroom. Lupin ushered the noisy curious class inside before shutting the door. 'Today we are going to be dealing with Boggarts' he announced, pointing a selection of cupboards, chests of drawer and old trunks 'Mr Filch has been kind enough to collect all the boggarts he found in the school over the summer here for us to practise on. So what is a boggart?' he asked

'A shape shifter which takes the shape of what you fear the most' A boy at the back answered.

'Well done Jonathan, take ten points to Gryffindor' Lupin said 'now it's a simple spell...' Ollie fazed out of the lesson. She had covered boggarts in her last term a Beaubatons and she was not looking forward to meeting them again.

'...now make an nice orderly line' the professor ordered to the class 'No need to push, there's plenty of boggarts to go around, so everyone should be able to have ago'

Ollie went straight to the back, hoping on the small off chance that all the boggarts would be dealt with before it got to her She watched as her classmates battled giant spiders, clowns, old great aunts and giant wasps, turning them into something to laugh at. One by one they walked away triumphantly, happy in the knowledge that they had overcome one of their fears. Unfortunately for Ollie, luck was not on her side that day.

'Ah Ollie' Professor Lupin said, 'you're that last one, try to finish this one off'

Ollie stood alone in the middle of the room, watched inquisitively by the rest of her class. The boggart began to change its form. _Crack! _A dead Harry Potter appeared in the middle of the room. The class screamed as Ollie began to shake. '_Riddikulus!'_ she whispered her wand shaking violently. _Crack! _The boggart turned into a dead Luna Lovegood, blood staining her blond hair. Ollie began to cry at the sight of her beloved godmother lying there on the floor '_Riddikulus!' _she tried again unsuccessfully as _crack! _The boggart turned into a huge black dog. Ollie whimpered, tears falling freely down her face.

'It's the Grim!' someone shrieked

'Ollie, you can leave it' Lupin said, trying to assure the scared girl. He was horrified by Ollie's boggarts and had been slightly unnerved by the sight of the dead Harry and the black dog.

'I need to do this Professor' Ollie said firmly through gritted teeth, trying to collect her wits. 'I am not scared to you!' she shouted at the hug dog '_RIDIKKOULOUS' _The boggart did not turn into something to laugh at, but exploded at the power of Ollie's spell. Pieces of it vanished into the air, leaving a panting girl with tear marks down her face and a stunned class.

'Right that's enough for today class' Lupin said, breaking the awkward tension which had filled the room 'for homework read the chapter of boggarts for next lesson' and with that the class scuttled quietly out of the room. 'Ollie can you stay behind for a moment' he asked. After Heather had given her new friend a comforting hug, they were left alone in the classroom.

'Here have some chocolate' Lupin said giving Ollie a bar of Honeyduke's finest, which Ollie accepted gratefully. 'Do you want to talk about it?' Lupin asked now in godfather mode. Ollie shook her head, tears still running down her face as he pulled her into a tight hug.

'Please don't tell Dad about this' she begged 'I would hate for him to know how rubbish I am at defence.'

'Ollie, Harry would not be mad that you have trouble defeating a boggart. You are good at defence, I've seen you duelling, you are amazing I've never seen someone your age fight like that. Don't get yourself down about the boggart, I know lots of great witches and wizards who have trouble with boggarts, you're not alone' he said comfortingly. 'Now about the black dog...'

'Thanks Professor' Ollie said cutting across him, having no desire to talk about the black dog. 'Will you be teaching next week?' she asked changing topic.

'_I_ don't know' he replied tiredly 'it's near a full moon so your Aunt Dora might be taking the lesson' Ollie smiled, her Aunt Dora was so cool!

'Now off to your next lesson' he said as they walked out of the door. 'Oh beware; I know that Teddy is planning to get you back for that prank you pulled on him the other day.'

'You're not mad are you?' Ollie asked, worried that she might have offended him by charming the back of Teddy's robes to say _Wolf boy- be warned I bite _'he deserved it, for embarrassing me like that!' Ollie stated firmly.

'I understand Ollie' Lupin replied calmly 'but just be on your guard'


	7. Chapter 6

Teddy Lupin stared at the Quidditch tryouts list, pined in the middle of the house notice board; he knew just how to enact his revenge on one Olwen Potter for embarrassing him like that on Tuesday.

'Are you going to sign up?' Heather asked the silent Ollie as they sat working on their horrible History of Magic homework Ollie had remained in a silent mood, determined to block out the previous day's Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson which still haunted her.

Ollie gave a noncommittal grunt, her quill scratching away on the parchment furiously

'You said you were a chaser, why don't you give it a go?' Heather pressed.

'There's no point Heather' Ollie said quietly 'the only spot open is a chasers position and the only people who have signed up so far are all seventh years, I would not stand a chance, I'm not that good.'

'She lies!' Teddy exclaimed overhearing their conversation 'Ollie's amazing at Quidditch, she could be on the team easily.'

'Oh shut up Teddy!' Ollie said moodily 'I'm not that good, I just fly for fun, it helps me take my mind off things.'

'Not that good? Not that good?' Teddy repeated 'Ollie, Mum compared your flying to the young Ginny Weasley, she even said you were better, please tryout' he begged

'No Teddy, I will not humiliate myself' she said firmly

'Actually you might stand a good chance' Jonathan Wood wisely said from behind a huge stack of books. 'Well if you are as good as Teddy says you are then you should have no problem. Especially since many of them are only trying out because it is their last year and they all failed miserably last year, so unless they have been practising a lot over the summer, you should be fine'

'See Jonathan Wood thinks you could get on the team' Teddy said, gesturing at the now sheepish boy who was now trying to avoid Ollie's glare. Apparently since Jon was the nephew of Oliver Wood, the legendary England Keeper and had been watching and analysing players since he was small, his opinion counted. 'Are you too scared Ollie?' Teddy taunted 'are you a chicken?'

'Teddy, what Jon said maybe true, but I'm trying to blend in here, I would be very noticeable if I was the youngest person on the team.'

'Ollie, face it you're never going to blend in' Heather said 'you're the daughter of the famous Harry Potter.'

Ollie groaned as Teddy continued to taunt her 'chicken, chicken are you a chicken? Cluck cluck! If you don't tryout, I'll tell Uncle Harry that you keep a diary!' He threatened, enacting his revenge. He knew that she would have to tryout now.

Theodore Lupin you're an annoying little toad!' Ollie shrieked as she chased him around the common room. 'You will do no such thing; you know Dad hates diaries and why he forbids them!'

'Sign up and I won't tell'

'Fine, I'll sign up' Ollie said, as she walked over to the board and write her name on the list angrily, 'but Teddy, if I end up humiliating myself in front of the whole school, you too will be feeling my pain!' and with that she stormed up to her dormitory.

The weather was perfect for playing Quidditch, Matthew Samuels thought as he eyed the hopefuls. He was the new quidditch captain and he was eager to find a player to fill the empty chasers position. As he walked down the line of potential team mates, he noticed most of them were from his year and were over confident. He shook his head sadly, he was not very hopeful, there was a reason why these students had not made it onto the team in previous years, they were not that good. However there was one person who signed up who was not a seventh year. Samuels walked up to the small black haired girl, at the end of the row. She appeared to be in her own little world, her hands gripping the top of her broom tightly, her eyes closed and her head bowed as if in prayer.

'Are you ok?' he asked her.

'Yeah' she replied looking up with a smile. 'I'm just cursing Teddy Lupin to the ends of the earth' she added calmly.

Bemused Samuels started to weed out the hopeless through various tasks. There were ones which could not fly or catch a ball or even dodge a bludger. He winced as a bludger collided with one of the last of the hopefuls. There were now only two left, a boy in his year, Smyth and most surprisingly the 3rd year girl, the mysterious Potter. Out of the two she was probably the best, she could catch the quaffle and dodge the bludgers and she seemed more at home on her broom. However to make things fair, the captain had designed one last task.

'You will now have an attempt to score a goal. However not only will you have to get the ball past me' he said, gesturing to himself, 'but the other two chasers, plus your opponent, who will be trying to intercept the ball. Smyth, you're first' and with that the players flew into the air.

Ollie observed her opponent carefully. When the tryout had started she told herself that she was not going to try very hard, however her annoying competitive edge had kicked in after Smyth had out flown her at the beginning and after that she tried her best, trying to beat him in the quaffle and bludger tests. She knew he was a good flyer, very quick on his broom however he was rather large and was not able to change direction quickly and change course, should an obstacle appear in his path. Ollie was knocked out of her musings by the sight of Smyth flying and full speed towards her. She looked around anxiously, the other two chasers had flown out of his way so she was the only one left in his way.

Ollie's mad instincts took over, she was here to win and she was not going to let this oaf stand in her way. She flew straight towards him, not to intercept the quaffle, but to knock him out of his way; it was a tactic see had seen Ginny Weasley do at the 2007 World Cup in Paris. She had finally persuaded her Dad to let her see Ginny Weasley play, a player who had been written about in the international newspapers. Her dad had been reluctant to take her and had spent most of the game, for some unknown reason, with his head in his hands.

As Ollie neared him she brought her broom up so the tail end and feet were facing the oncoming Smyth and hen he neared she kicked his broom as hard as she could, causing him to veer of course. As she was pushed to the opposite end of the pitch, Ollie watched with some satisfaction that her opponent, the mighty 7th year was not able to regain his balance and aim. His weak shot at the middle post was blocked easily by the goal keeper.

'Ok let's see if Potter can do any better' the captain said, hoping that this small girl would be better, otherwise he did not who to put on his team and it was nearing lunchtime.

Ollie caught the quaffle he threw at her and head in to air. She easily dodged the first pair of chasers who headed towards her. Smyth was headed towards her, eager to have is revenge. Ollie gave a sharp downwards push on the handle of her broom, causing the tail to hit the unsuspecting Smyth in the head. With all three chasers eliminated, she flew towards the left post. The goalkeeper rose to meet her, Ollie pointed her broom down sharply flying beneath the captain and under the post. She sped round the back, flew over the right post, throwing the quaffle backwards threw the unmarked hoop as she past, to the amazement of everyone watching.

Ollie landed on the soft grass triumphantly and was greeted by the happy captain.

'Practise starts on Tuesday' he told her as the disappointed Smyth threw his broom in to the ground angrily.

'I knew you could do it!' Teddy said before he tackled her into a big hug.

'Thanks Teddy for making me do it' Ollie replied truthfully 'I feel loads better now, so truce?' she asked holding out her hand.

'Yeah' the blue haired boy replied smiling 'truce for now' and they shook their hands in agreement.

'You were amazing!' Jon exclaimed as they walked up to the castle. 'Who taught you to fly like that?'

'My Dad helped me a bit' she replied, shrugging her shoulders

'But my Uncle told me he was a seeker'

'I think someone close to him used to play Chaser' she replied thoughtfully 'but I never asked; he seems to get upset when you ask about is past.'

A member of Harry Potter's past was at that moment standing outside in the rain. Ron Weasley shivered as the cold sea breeze hit his sodden body. He had been waiting outside Shell Cottage, torrential rain, waiting for his brother or Sister-in-law to open the door.

'Ah, Ron come in' Bill Weasley said as he finally opened the door. 'Hope you're not too wet, we just could not hear you knocking over the storm.'

'Its fine' Ron replied as he quickly cast a drying charm on himself.

'Bill, who is it?' Fleur asked as she made her way down the stairs, after so many years in England she had finally lost her French accent.

'Ron'

'Is Hermione with him?'

'I'm afraid this is not a social visit Fleur' Ron said regretfully, 'I'm here on Auror business; I need to ask you both about the break in at Gringotts on Thursday.

'So the ministry has decided to finally investigate these mysterious break- ins' Fleur said as they sat down in the sitting room.

'I'm afraid, we can't tell you much about this one' Bill said apologetically. 'I had taken the day off to look after the kids since Fleur was in Paris meeting her sister-'

'Who turned up late, to finally announce she was engaged!' Fleur interjected.

'Why are you asking us about these break-ins anyway? Bill asked 'you could ask any member of the bank?'

'There are only a number of people who still use the secret back entrance to the Bank' Ron replied 'And you two are a part of that number, Dawlish made me come and ask about it, besides more importantly, why do you keep saying break-ins, this is the first one that has been reported to the ministry?'

'It's not the first Ron' Fleur said shaking her head. 'The Goblins obviously did not want it known that there have been break-ins, I think they have come to a dead end in their investigations and have finally alerted the ministry.'

'How many?' Ron asked writing everything down.

'I think Ragnok said there had been at least seven' Bill replied.

And when did they start?'

'It must have been late 2005' Fleur said thoughtfully. 'Yes it was around the first Christmas after Maman and Papa died and after Egypt' she shuddered at the horrible things they had experienced in Egypt and the memory or that poor child who had been taken from her father.

'And is it always the same person?' Ron asked quickly, noticing that his French sister-in-law as getting quite upset.

'It's quite hard to explain' Bill began 'It seems to be a group of people – have you seen the security footage?'

Ron shock his head 'there was none' he said gloomily.

'I suppose they are getting better then' Bill remarked, before elaborating at the sight of Ron's enquiring look. 'I mean at the beginning it was a man and a young woman and the man looked as if he was showing the woman what to do, it was as if he had been inside this part of Gringotts before, he knew about the back entrance. Then it was just the young woman who broke in. More recently it has been the same woman but a different man. The goblin's only got a glimpse of them before they blasted the security cameras. Now it seems as if they are actually hacking into the security system.'

'So they are very clever, experienced and possibly quite dangerous?'

'Very' Bill relied tiredly. 'I've never seem thieves like this.'

'What do you mean?' Ron asked

'He means Ron, that unlike when you broke into Gringotts during the war, these people do not go to the vaults, they always head towards the offices and normally into the records room' Fleur answered.

Do they take anything?'

'The really peculiar thing is that nothing is taken, everything is how the last goblin left it. They even leave no magical trace!'

'But how do they get out?' Ron asked remembering how lucky he and his friends had been to get out of the bank alive and without being caught.

'No one has worked that out yet' Bill said 'somehow they get past the goblin's anti-apparation wards'

Ron though for a moment 'maybe they're using a house elf?' he suggested.

'It's possible' Bill answered 'most creatures, including goblins, forget that elves have their own type of magic, so they hardly protect things from it.'

'The people who are planning these break-ins must be from an old rich wizarding family' Ron said 'only these still own a house elf, most house elves now work at Hogwarts or St Mungo's'

'You think it could be one of the old Death Eater families, Ron?' came Fleur's anxious voice.

'It's a possibility' he remarked 'though after what you have told me, I think this is far more complicated than that'

An awkward silence filled the room. 'Is Hermione Ok?' Fleur asked finally.

'yeah she's great' Ron replied smiling at the mention of his pregnant wife 'she just keeps complaining that the baby is making her fat and Rosie's really excited about the baby.'

'I can't believe she left the ministry like that' Bill said smiling

'I know' Ron replied 'It was a shock to me. 'One moment I was sitting quietly in my office, doing some stupid paperwork for Dawlish, the next Hermione come storming into my office, knocking everything everywhere and announcing that she has quit her job. After taking her to Mum's to calm her down, I returned to work to discover that not only she had resigned she had set birds on the Minister for Magic. I hid myself under paperwork for the next week!'

'The minister must have done something to really annoy her' Bill remarked

'To be honest, I don't blame her' Ron commented. 'If I could work up the courage, I probably might do the same thing. Dawlish is driving me absolutely insane. Instead of letting us investigate the big things like the last break out at Azkaban or the mysterious killings of the last werewolf colonies, he has us all doing stupid things, which Law Enforcement could handle!'

'From what I've heard you're not the only one who has become dissatisfied with working at the Ministry. Dad's thinking about taking early retirement and Tonks is thinking up ways to try and stay at Hogwarts full time. Even Percy, ministry-loving-Percy, is thinking about revolting'

'That, I would like to see!'Ron replied. 'Well I'd best head back to the office and write all this up' he said standing up 'thanks for talking to me'

'Will you be at Ginny's game next Saturday?' Bill asked as he escorted his brother to the door.

'I would not miss Ginny's first England match as captain for the world' Ron replied before stepping back out into the rain and disapparating.

* * *

><p><strong>Hi!<br>**

**I hoped you enjoyed this chapter, please review and the next chapter should be up next week!**

**~Cherry x**


	8. Chapter 7

Ollie and her friends, Heather and Jon, were scanning the day's Daily Prophet.

'I can't believe there has been a break-in in the Ministry of Magic!' Heather remark as she read the article on the front page. 'How on earth did they get into the head Auror's office undetected, isn't it meant to be one of the most secure places in the ministry?' she asked.

'Maybe it's the same people who broke into Gringotts last month?' Jon suggested, as he shoved a forkful of baked beans into his mouth, dripping tomato sauce all over the paper.

'Watch it!' Heather said, moving the paper from beneath Jon's mouth. 'Isn't that your fourth helping of beans this morning?' she asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

'Yep.'

'Urgh! And to think we have to go around Hogsmeade with him today!' Heather remarked, nudging Ollie, who was staring into space.

'Right' she said sleepily. 'What did you just say?'

'I said I can't believe we are going around Hogsmeade with this disgusting person!' Heather repeated slowly gesturing to Jon who was now munching through his third piece of toast.

'What?' he said, noticing the two girls staring at him, 'I'm a growing boy' he muttered, before returning to his toast.

'Actually guys, I've got something to confess' Ollie said looking up from her own uneaten piece of toast. 'I don't think I'll be able to go to Hogsmeade with you today, I haven't got a permission slip signed'

'How come?' Heather asked.

'McGonagall must've forgotten to give me one to get signed'

'Well get Professor Lupin to write one' she suggested

'Heather, do you want to keep me alive?' Ollie replied 'It's a full moon tonight which means he's in a foul mood'

'How about Professor Tonks?' Heather asked, knowing how close Ollie was to the two Professors.

'Tonks is probably more dangerous than her husband at the moment' Ollie remarked, remembering their Defence lesson two days ago and how the normally bubbly, happy teacher had been grumpy and had assigned the class an essay two foot longer than usual.

Why don't you try McGonagall?' Jon suggested.

'It wouldn't work Jonny!' Ollie said exasperatedly 'You said it had to be signed by a parent or guardian, of which she is neither. I guess I'm stuck in the castle.'

'We'll stay with you' Heather offered. 'I don't want you to be left by yourself in the castle and I don't want to be left alone with him' she said pointing at Jon who had finally stopped eating.

'No, you go and had a good time' Ollie argued 'You said you wanted to get some chocolate for your Aunt. Besides I need to catch up on some homework' she said yawning.

'You need to catch up on sleep, more like' Jon said with a smirk.

* * *

><p>'Ollie wake up, wake up!'<p>

Ollie opened her eyes and found herself staring at the angry face of Teddy Lupin, his hair flashing between his normal blue and an angry red. She was lying on her potions textbook, her unfinished essay, abandoned beside her.

'If you're going to snore, at least do it in the privacy of your own dormitory' he said grumpily.

'Hey I don't snore!' Ollie replied indignantly.

'Yes you do' Teddy replied 'I think all the people who are currently sitting in the common would agree'

'I'm sorry Teddy' she replied apologetically, picking up her discarded homework and folding out the creases 'I was trying to do my stupid potions essay and the exhaustion of last night's quidditch practise must have caught up with me'

'Well try and stay awake for the feast tonight!' Teddy replied

'Feast?' Ollie asked, wondering what was so special about tonight's dinner.

'You know, the Halloween feast?'

'Halloween?'

'Well duh, why else was Hagrid dragging huge pumpkins into the Great Hall at breakfast?'

'Oh right' Ollie said before standing up.

'Where are you going?' Teddy called out after her, as he watched Ollie clamber through the portrait hole. 'The dormitories are the other way! Ollie you'll fall asleep in your pumpkin pie! Ollie you can't go anywhere now, the people will be coming back from Hogsmeade soon. Ollie!'

Ollie ignored what Teddy was saying as she raced through the school. She felt so stupid, how could she have forgotten the date? She made her way out of the school, wrapping her cloak around her to protect herself form the rain as she crossed the school grounds, walking briskly around the lake, towards the war memorial. The blinding white marble phoenix was standing out like a shining beacon in the gloom.

'Brown, McQueen, Timmins, Wood...' Tonks said as she crossed off each person's name off her register as they came into the school from Hogsmeade.

'Professor, do you know where Ollie is?' Heather asked the teacher.

'Isn't she with you?' Tonks asked tiredly, she was not in the mood to deal with a disappearing Potter today.

'Professor, you know she didn't come into Hogmeade with us today, she did not have a permission slip. I said she should see you but...' Heather's rambling was cut off by the pink haired Auror.

'And has no one see her since this morning?'

'No, Teddy saw her in the common room just over an hour ago, but she left and no one has seen her since. He also muttered something about Professor Lupin and a map.'

'Is everything ok here?' came another voice, joining them in the entrance hall. Tonks and Heather turned around to see the Headmistress standing next to them.

'I can't find Ollie professor' Heather said 'And I would hate for her to miss her first Halloween feast at Hogwarts.'

'Tonks lifted her head sharply. It was Halloween today, how could she have forgotten.

'I know where Ollie is Minerva' she said realisation dawning on her 'she's at the war memorial'

'Why would she be there?' Heather asked confused as to how Tonks had made that assumption.

'It's Halloween' she answered, as if that explained it.

'Miss Brown, why don't you head up to your common room, I'm sure Miss Potter will be alright'. After Heather had walked along the corridor, McGonagal turned to Tonks. 'Nymphadora why don't you go and be with your husband?' she suggested.

'But Minerva, shouldn't I go and get Ollie?'

'I'll get her my dear' McGonagall replied. 'I need to work up an appetite for the feast and besides, the weather is nothing that a drying charm won't cure. With that the Headmistress strode across the grounds towards the war memorial.

Ollie was standing in front of the memorial, her eyes drawn to three names engraved into the white marble.

'Um... hi, I'm Ollie' she finally whispered. 'I'm the one Dad talks about when he visits your graves in Godric's Hollow. I'm here this year because Dad's away somewhere. He's probably doing something which is really dangerous and stupid, but probably for the good of the wizarding world.' She watched as a cat jumped up onto to the white marble, curling up underneath on of the phoenix's outstretched wings, sheltering from the rain.

'I hope you did not take any offence from the Defence Against the Dark Arts incident' she said suddenly, her eyes staring at one particular name in the marble, the words spilling out of her mouth. 'I don't really fear you, not in the way people are scared of spiders. It's just I'm afraid your angry or disappointed that I don't really think of you as my Dad. Dad's my dad, you're just my father, if you understand. I think Dad found it weird at first being called Daddy. It started as Oncle 'Arry, I could only speak French back then, which soon became Dada and the rest is history' Ollie explained, thinking back to the sunny days of her childhood.

'The thing is I know hardly anything about you. Dad can only tell me so much, even though you were his godfather, he only really knew you for two years before you died. Uncle Remus does not really like being asked about the past. I don't think he likes the fact that all his childhood friends are dead and he hates remembering that he is the only one left. I wish I could ask you all sorts of questions that Dad and Uncle Remus don't know the answer to. Stupid things like: what was your favourite colour or what position you played in quidditch or most importantly who my mother was? I used to hear tales of how you were a great womaniser from Nandromeda, she was so surprised that I was born, but on the back of the pendent you gave my mother, you said you loved her. Who was she?' A tear began fall down Ollie's cheek. She wiped it away crossly, she was not going to cry, she was not a baby.

'I think should be going now, before anyone wonders where I am. Teddy says there is a feast later to celebrate Halloween, but to be honest I don't feel like celebrating.' Ollie then gripped her wand tightly beneath her robes; she could sense someone was nearby. She pulled it out and flicked it like she had seen her Dad do so many times. Nothing happened. 'Come on flowers' she muttered, she flicked her wrist again, closing her eyes. She felt something enter her hands; she opened her eyes in amazement. Clutched in her hands was a bouquet of white lilies. She placed them at the base of the monument.

'Sirius Black was a beater on the house team in his last year and his favourite colour was Gryffindor red, just to annoy his parents.' A voice said coming from next to Ollie. Ollie jumped and pointed her wand at person who had appeared next to her.

'Miss Potter, while I must say your father has taught you well, I really do not appreciate a wand pointed a my face'

'Sorry Professor McGonagall' the sheepish Ollie replied, hastily stuffing her wand back into her robes. 'Did you hear everything?' Ollie asked.

'Yes' the headmistress replied. 'It's nice to know that I'm not going mad. You look like so much like your real father, heart shaped face, black curly hair, apart from your eyes. His were grey, yours are a stunning violet.

'But how?' Ollie asked 'I was all alone and then you appeared...' she paused realisation dawning on her 'you were that cat, weren't you?' she asked

'I was' McGonagall said. 'Your friends were worried about where you where, Professor Tonks realised that you might be at the war memorial and I came to get you'

'They're back already?' Ollie asked 'but...'

'Time seems to have a horrible habit of going far too quickly, when we least want it, Miss Potter' McGonagall replied. 'I suggest we head back up to the school now, before we miss the start of the feast and let Miss Brown stop worrying.'

The Headmistress and her pupil began to walk, fairly briskly through the rain, heading towards the castle.

'You act really convincingly as a cat, Professor' Ollie commented as they walked, the sun setting over the lake. 'When Dad transforms into his animagus, a stag, he still acts like Dad'

'You're father's an animagus?'

'Yeah, he managed to do it with so help from Aunt Luna and Mademoiselle Lefey, when he was teaching at Beaubatons.'

'And I don't wish to pry Ollie' McGonagall said choosing her next words carefully 'but is your father happy? As a teacher you're not meant to have favourites but I always tried to look out for Harry, are he and your Aunt Luna together?' she asked finally getting the words out of her mouth.

'No!' Ollie replied laughing 'No! They are like brother and sister, I think they tried dating once when I was really little but they found it too weird. I think Dad still loves someone he knew when he was at school, but he never talks about his past, I know nothing really about his school friends, he has no pictures, well if he has got pictures they are really well hidden and Luna refuses to tell me anything'

'Good, good' the headmistress replied, glad to have finished that awkward topic of conversation. 'I think we're just in time for the start of the feast' she said changing topic.

'Professor do I have to go the feast?' Ollie asked 'can't I just have dinner with Kreacher, Ribbons and the rest of the house elves in the kitchen?'

'Miss Potter, I think you will feel better if you are with your friends' the Headmistress replied as she gestured for Ollie to join the mass of people entering the hall.

Ollie slipped into the great hall and sat down quickly next to Heather, who gave her smile before going off on rant about how worried she and Jon had been, what they had done in Hogsmeade and how embarrassing it had been to be around Jon. Ollie just smiled, her bad feelings vanishing. The Headmistress was right, it felt so was good to be surrounded by her friends.

'Jon can I have a pumpkin pie, before you finish them off?'


	9. Chapter 8

Harry glanced at his old battered watch. According to his watch, he had been stuck up the same pine tree for over 6 hours, observing the people underneath him. They appeared to be setting up some sort of camp around the base of the tree. The younger version of himself would have raced down the tree and attacked the men while they were distracted, but the older Harry knew, that with a little bit more patience he might gather some more information which could help him unravel this mysterious group. Harry began to relax slightly against one of the branches, hidden from view in the depths of the evergreen tree and he began to reflect on the past couple of months.

He had been o the trail of the Azkaban escapees, Amycus Carrow and Augustus Rookwood for many months now. He had asked to be assigned to this mission, in the hope he could finish what had started all those years ago at the battle of Hogwarts. These men and their other conspiritors needed punishing for what they had done. Dolohov and Lestrange had already fallen, now it was Carrow and Rookwood's turn to face the wrath of Harry Potter.

Harry had managed to find Carrow and Rookwood terrorising a small werewolf colony in Cornwall and had followed their trail of devastation. After Cornwall they had attacked the wild centaur herd in the New Forest, and had killed several innocent muggles who had stood in their way. That had happened back in August and now it was the end of October; Halloween. Normally most years he took an international Porkey to Grimmauld Place and then from there he apparated, under his father's old invisibility cloak, to Godric's Hollow. Here, he could pay his respects to his parents and his godfather, who had a memorial there, next to his best friends.

Thinking about Sirius made Harry think about his beautiful daughter Ollie. He wondered how she was. He felt like such a bad parent leaving her with Gabby after she and Luna had their huge argument. If Gabby had done as he had told her to, Ollie should be eating in the Great Hall, enjoying her first Halloween feast at Hogwarts right now. Harry missed her so much, but he knew she understood what he did and the lengths he went to to keep her safe. Ever since Egypt he had taken even more precautions surrounding her safety. She was the most precious thing in his life. He felt as if he was nearing the end of his mission, the end was in sight, only a couple of days and then he could contact his daughter and make up for all the times he had been away. Harry silently vowed to himself that when this was all over he would resign from active duty at the IDA. He knew he should have done it years ago but...

Harry's thoughts were broken by a high pitched scream. He used his Omnioculars to look down at his targets and search for the cause of the noise. He watched in horror as Carrow lifted the disillusion charm off a poor harmless woman, who continued to scream.

'Shut up, you filthy bitch' he said, spitting in her face as he grabbed a fistful of her auburn hair and dragged over to the base of the nearest tree, where Rookwood bound and gagged her. The woman began protest violently, the sound of her cries were muffled by the gag around her mouth.

'I said shut it!' Carrow roared, pulling out his wand and turning on her 'I'm trying to think'

Harry could not bear in anymore. He could see how scared she was, her red hair flying around as she tried to get free. That red hair, the same colour of Ginny's, he thought as he lowered himself from the tree.

'Amycus Carrow and Augustus Rookwood you're under arrest' Harry state pointing his wand at the pair. At the sight of the arrival of another man, the woman who was tied to the tree fainted in shock.

'Well, well if it isn't Potter, took you long enough' Carrow drawled his wand pointing directly at Harry 'I was beginning to think that Jolene here' he flicked his gaze towards the woman 'was not going to work, after all it only took you a month to find Lestrange.

'As you are not a member of the Ministry of Magic, Potter' Rookwood, a former ministry employee said 'you have no authority on which to arrest us' he added with a smirk.

'As a member of the IDA I have every right to arrest you' Harry replied, watching the pair closely 'so why don't you just come quietly?'

'What are you going to do with us, if we do as you say and come quietly?' Carrow asked as he began to circle Harry 'I was under the impression that you were not really welcome anymore in this country after you had a slight fall out with the Minister.'

'Let the woman go!' Harry demanded remembering the poor redhead was still attached to the tree.

'Very well' Rookwood stated maliciously and with a flick of his wand the ropes which tied the woman to the tree vanished and her unconscious body, crumpled to the floor. 'She has passed her usefulness anyway' he muttered and aimed a killing curse at her already limp body.

'She was innocent!' Harry cried 'why did you bring her here?'

'Ah poor Jolene, a red head, you like redheads don't you Potter?' Rookwood taunted. 'We found her in Bristol and brought her along for a bit of...how can I put it... entertainment' he grined maliciously.

Carrow used Harry's temporary disgust to fire a curse at him, which Harry's quick reflexes quickly dodged. This soon turned into a fully fledged duel, the Death Eaters aiming at Harry.

'Remember the Mistress wants him alive' Rookwood reminded Carrow as they advanced towards Harry, who quickly darted behind the nearest tree.

Carrow growled angrily, he wanted to get revenge on Potter for what he did to his sister Alecto. 'I wonder what will happen to your daughter' he taunted as they continued to exchange hexes. 'Dolohov told the mistress that she was such a precious child, the mistress thinks she would be very useful to her.'

'You will never have my daughter!' Harry roared as he charged towards the two men. He duelled fiercely twirling, ducking and avoiding the multitude of spells which were being aimed at him. Suddenly Carrow fired a cutting curse at Harry, catching him unawares as he blocked Rookwood's stunning spell. It hit Harry's out stretched wand arm causing him to drop his wand in surprise. Rookwood seized his chance and fired another stunner and the now defenceless Harry. It hit him square in the chest and the world turned black.

* * *

><p>'Gabby come quickly', came Dennis' voice from the attic. The blond haired witch raced from the Kitchen, up the many flights of stairs in Grimmauld Place, passing Luna Lovegood's deserted flat and her and Dennis' room.<p>

'What is?' she asked, as she arrived at the wooden ladder which led up to the Attic.

'Something is coming through from Dawlish's office' he replied as she appeared next to him, having climbed up the ladder. He handed her a pair of old Muggle headphones and pointed at an image on the screen in front of him.

'Dennis is this another false alarm?' she asked, settling herself into the swishy chair. 'Last time it was just Tonks reporting in from Hogwarts.'

'This is real this time' he insisted 'The spy-bugs have picked up on a floo call from an unidentified fire'.

'Well let's see it' she demanded and Dennis pressed play.

Gabby and Dennis watched as the Head Auror, John Dawlish, locked the door to his office, lowered all the blinds, covering all the windows and crept over to the fireplace behind the desk, crouching before the now green fire at the back of his office.

'The coast is clear my love' he whispered into the flames.

The couple watching the screen gasped as a toad shaped face appeared amidst the flames. 'I have some good news for you, John' Umbridge said in a sickly sweet voice 'I've had word from Rookwood, he and Carrow have successfully managed to capture that thought in my side, Harry Potter.'

'That is good news my love' Dawlish replied. 'How did they manage that?' he asked in disbelief.

'Emotional trickery and cornering him in a duel' she replied smugly. 'They are bringing him to me. Oh I can't wait to get my hands on that filthy boy' she remarked gleefully. 'Well we shall soon get our revenge' she said contentedly, before disappearing from the fire.

Gabby and Dennis looked at each other in horror, Harry had been captured? Harry Potter, one of the best duellists in the IDA had been beaten by two old renegade death eaters? They were in shock. Not Harry. They were also both disappointed that did not learn Harry's location, so they could launch a rescue mission, who knows where he could be? Gabby fiddled with her engagement ring nervously as she tried to firgue out what to do next. Silence filled the attic.

'We have to let Ollie know' she said finally.

* * *

><p>A white owl soared through the open window and into the Great Hall, attracting some pupils attention as this stranger looking owl circled the hall, before spotting her owner and flying down towards the Gryffindor table.<p>

'Bluebell, c'est vous?' Ollie asked knocking over the box of Cherri-owls, in her haste to pick up the bird. 'Pourquoi êtes-vous ici?' She asked, stroking the owl's soft white feathers speaking to the bird in gentle rapid French. Why was her owl here? she wondered, Gabby was meant to be looking after her. As Bluebell sat on her shoulder nibbling her ear affectionately, Ollie noticed some of her house mates were staring at her curiously.

'Ollie, you're talking to an owl?' Jon asked

'Oui'

'Ollie, you're talking to an owl in French?' he questioned slowly, as if she had gone mad.

'Yes, because she's a French owl' Ollie replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

'Ollie she dropped this' Heather said reaching over to pick up a piece of parchment which had fallen in the muesli.

Ollie took the letter out of her friend's hand eagerly and unrolled the parchment quickly, and started to scan its contents, before faltering on the first five words, inked hastily onto the paper.

_Ollie your Dad's been captured..._

* * *

><p><strong>Hi! A big thank you to everyone who is reading my story and has made it this far. I hope the French is ok! I'll admit now that I am absolutly hopeless at French, so all the words have come from the amazing Google Translate! If a native French speakes reading this (or anyone who is better at French then m<em>e)<em> and can find any mistakes please let me know, either via review or pm, so I can correct it!**

**As usual the next chapter will be up next Thursday, unless something disasterous happens!**

**~Cherry :)  
><strong>


	10. Chapter 9

**Hi! Here's another chapter I hope you enjoy. A big thank you to jafr86 for reviewing the last two chapter, reviews really encourage me to keep writing, even when I'm snowed under by school work! As usual the next chapter should be up this time next week unless my internet dies...**

Ollie sat on the floor of the 3rd year girl's dormitory, staring out of the window. Her back was resting against the cold stone wall, her legs bent to fit into the small window alcove, her breath misting up the glass on the cold November's evening. She was clutching her pendent in her hand, her fingers tracing over the smooth silver before hitting the rough crystal in the centre. The pendent, her mother's pendent was a source of comfort; she had had it always with her, for as long as she could remember it had been around her neck.

Ollie was no means religious, her father wasn't particularly, they had gone to church occasionally at Christmas but that was it. However at this moment Ollie was hoping there was someone somewhere watching over ever and was keeping her Dad safe. It could be the God she had been told about when she was a baby back in the orphanage run by Nuns, or it could be her ancestors living up in the clouds, or it could even be a big flying invisible purple dragon, or it could be no one. It had been two days since Gabby had sent her the letter and she just hoped her father was going to be alright.

Ollie's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the wooden door being flung open to announce the arrival Phoenix McQueen. Ollie hastily shoved her pendent into the pocket of robes, not having time to clasp it round her neck before standing up to greet her housemate.

'Am I interrupting you?' Phoenix asked, noticing Ollie's hasty movements. 'I just wondered whether you wanted to work on the Ancient Runes project with me?' she asked 'Heather said you would be up here and...' she trailed off looking expectantly at Ollie.

'I was just about to head down to the common room' Ollie replied, trying to push the sad thoughts about her father out of her mind.

'Well do you want to work with me on the project?' Phoenix asked impatiently, leaning against the doorframe blocking Ollie's exit. 'Or am I going to have to work with Austin?' she asked, a small smile appearing on her face.

Ollie began to laugh; she knew that Phoenix would rather partner the giant squid than Austin. Ollie, Phoenix and Austin, a Hufflepuff and Phoenix's 2nd cousin, all sat next to each other at the back of Ancient Runes. Ollie and Phoenix had bonded over the fact that they both found Austin incredibly annoying. 'Fine' she replied, walking towards the door, picking up her bag off her bed as she passed 'I can't leave you to work with Austin.'

'Thanks!' Phoenix replied as they headed down the dormitory stairs 'you had me worried there for a moment', she shuddered, thinking about what it could have been like having to work with Austin.

'You managed to get her out of the dorm!' Heather exclaimed, looking up from the top of her divination homework, as she saw Phoenix coming down the stairs with Ollie. 'She's been moping up there for too long'.

'We're heading to the library, to get this stupid project done, do you want to come?' Phoenix asked looking around the common room, before shaking her head.

'No thanks Phee' Heather replied, Divination doesn't require books, you just make it all up!'

Ollie and Phoenix left the noisy common room, heading through the candlelit corridors to the library.

'How come you didn't ask Maisie or Elenora, whether they wanted to come?' Ollie asked as walked. She liked Phoenix, she was different to Heather. Heather was studious; she liked to read and was quite shy. Phoenix on the other hand was loud, outgoing and put her social life first before homework. Actually Ollie was surprised Phoenix had even remembered the project. She wasn't saying that she was stupid; Phoenix was clever she just did not like to work and put as little effort as possible into her studies.

'Did you see them back there?' Phoenix replied as they walked round a corner towards the stairs. 'Elenora was hovering around Daniel Spencer' she said referring to the handsome 5th year chaser who always seemed to be surrounded by giggling girls 'and Maisie was with her, making complete and utter fools of themselves. Daniel won't even look at them' she informed Ollie 'he has a long term crush on Clara Thompson in Ravenclaw.'

'Remind me what this project is about?' Ollie asked, changing the topic as she struggled to keep up with Phoenix, who was running at great speed down the stairs.

'How have Ancient Runes been important in modern magical history' Phee replied jumping down the stairs.

'What?'

'Nothing about the Druids I guess!'

'Phee, wait up!' Ollie called out, focusing on not falling down the stairs by looking down at her feet. Suddenly she bumped into something quite solid.

'Watch where you are going' said a low growling voice.

Ollie looked up and found herself staring into the face of a big Slytherin.

'What's taking you so long?' Phoenix asked running back up the stairs to see if her friend had fallen through one of the disappearing steps. 'Oh' she said as she reached the flight of stairs Ollie on and saw the scene. 'Come on Ollie' she urged.

'So you're Ollie' the Slytherin remarked looking down at the small black haired girl, wayward curls escaping from a messy plait. 'Ollie what?'

'Potter' Ollie replied proudly, trying not to be scared of the big ugly slytherin.

'Potter! Well Ollie Potter, I'll be taking 30 points from Gryffindor for not looking where you were going and running into a prefect'

'That's not fair! You can't take points' she objected

'Ollie, come one leave it!' Phoenix said, trying to keep the peace and get away from Greengrass and his little band of evil slytherins as quickly as possible.

'Yeah Potter, listen to your little mudblood friend' he said

'What did you just call her?' Ollie asked, enraged that he had insulted her friend.

'A Mudblood, cos that's what she is, got a problem with that?' he asked, drawing his wand to threaten her.

'Please Ollie just leave it, Greengrass calls every muggleborn that' Phoenix said from the bottom of the stairs 'It's nothing new'.

'Just because he says it, doesn't mean that it is right' Ollie stated, drawing her own wand in defence. Greengrass looked shocked; no one had dared to stand up to him before, yet here was this puny 3rd year, wand out ready to challenge him. His cronies, Ernestine Nott and Matheus Montague, backed away slowly, not knowing what to do while Phoenix watched nervously from the bottom of the stairs.

Greengrass fired a hex at Ollie, who quickly cast a shield charm, the spell defecting off it and hitting the banister. Undeterred Greengrass fired another curse at Ollie, who kept her shield charm strong.

'Not going to fight back Potter?' he taunted 'are you scared you'll get hurt, are you a coward like your father?'

'What did you call my father?' she asked, trying to keep her temper under control.

'I called him a coward, because that's what he is' Greengrass replied, lazily aiming another hex at Ollie. 'He hasn't shown his face in years, he's done nothing in years apart from hiding away somewhere' he smirk seeing the younger girl's face which was getting angrier and angrier, her frown deepening at the mention of her missing father. 'You must have realised by now Potter' he continued 'I tell it as it is, the truth is that your father is a bloody coward.' Phoenix, on seeing her friend's furious expression, subconsciously reached into her robes to grab her wand, scared for her friend's safety.

Ollie could not take his taunts any longer. 'My father is not a coward!' she screamed, finally retaliating, firing multiple hexes and curses at the 6th year Slytherin. Greengrass did not know what had hit him. Hastily he fired a couple of spells before casting a shield charm to protect himself against the barrage of spells Ollie was aiming at him His friends Phoenix and all the other students who were now watching this duel, held up on the way back to their common rooms, watched in amazement as this 13 year old girl spun around, completely at home with firing all sorts of spells at this huge 16 year old boy. Actually a couple of the older students found it quite unnerving that this small girl was such an accomplished duellist.

The amount of spells being fired at him finally got too much for Duncan Greengrass. He sent one last hex towards Ollie before he lost his footing and fell down the stone steps, landing in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the stone steps, battered, bruised and highly embarrassed to have been defeated by a girl three years his junior. He hastily got to his feet, ready to unleash a new set of spells, when suddenly a voice of authority arrived on the scene.

'KATARINA OLWEN MOLLY POTTER WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?'

Ollie hastily lowered her wand and hung her head in shame, taking calming breaths.

'And where do you think you are going Mr Greengrass?' Tonks asked, arms folded disapprovingly, hair flashing to an angry red, as he tried to disappear into the huge crowd. '50 points from Gryffindor and Slytherin for such foolish actions' she said before she began to lecture 'How stupid are you both? You could have been seriously hurt. Katarina, come with me' Tonks announced 'everyone else to your common rooms, there's nothing else to see here. Don't look so smug Mr Greengrass' she remarked 'I'll be telling the Headmistress and your head of house about this. You're a prefect and should've known better. Bear in mind that you are very lucky Mr Greengrass' Tonks added 'Ollie was going easy on you, she could've defeated you in a matter of seconds' then she grabbed hold of Ollie's shoulder and began to lead her away, leaving a very mortified slytherin behind her.

'Professor it wasn't Ollie's fault' Phoenix insisted running after them. 'Greengrass called me a mudblood and then insulted her father and ...'

'I'm sure I will find out what happened from Katarina, Miss McQueen' Tonks said, holding up her hand to silence her. 'Why don't you let me deal with Katarina and you go back to the common room since it is nearly curfew and I would hate it if you were caught out of bed by Filtch.' Phoenix shot Ollie a look of sympathy before turning around and slowly walking back to the common room.

'Right then, Katarina follow me'

'Ollie shuddered, dreading what her Aunt Dora-Professor Tonks was going to do with her. The way she was calling her Katarina was horrible, that cold voice. She had never heard her Aunt speak in that tone of voice before, even when Teddy was fighting with his little sister Millie. Ollie trailed behind the metamorphmagus as she led Ollie to the Head of Gryffindor's office and towards professor Lupin. Ollie gulped, trying to gather her Gryffindor courage as her Aunt opened the door. She did not want to think what her godfather was going to say to her, how disapproving and disappointed he was going to be, especially since he was still recovering from the effects of the full moon.

Remus Lupin looked up from his comfy armchair by the fire, the evening prophet in his hands, he had been reading about the mysterious appearance of a muggle woman in the Forest of Dean. He put his paper down as the office door opened and his wife and Ollie entered.

'So what was the cause of the disturbance and why is Ollie not in the common room?' he asked

'Ollie was the cause of the disturbance' Tonks replied grimly, gesturing for Ollie to sit down on the wooden chair she had just conjured while she made herself comfortable in the armchair opposite her husband.

'What?' he replied looking alarmed what on earth could Ollie have done to make Dora so annoyed, he wondered?

'She was duelling Duncan Greengrass on the stairs; Tonks replied.

'Why?' Remus asked, turning to his Goddaughter who was looking away from the two professors and staring intently at the fire, watching smoke fly up the chimney, her violet eyes alight reflecting the flames.

'Ollie, why were you fighting on the stairs?' he asked calmly.

Ollie turned to face him, hands clasped tightly on her lap and she began to tell her side to the story. When she had finished there was a long pause as the two adults digested the information.

'Ollie, while I think you were right to stand up to him, you shouldn't have retaliated like you did' Lupin said finally. 'You both could have got seriously hurt, if you had angered the staircase it could have moved violently and you could have been flung off' Ollie looked at her Godfather sceptically.

'It could've happened Ollie' Tonks added quietly 'rules are there for a reason' she said thinking about the final battle, in which the stairs had been swinging backwards and forwards in the darkness adding to the chaos.

'Your father is not a coward' Lupin added reassuringly 'he's one of the bravest people I know, don't listen to people like Greengrass' he advised 'their just jealous that their families aren't so noble and have tarnished reputations. Ollie's eyes began to tear up at the mention of her mission father.

'Ollie what's the matter?' Tonks asked

Ollie slowly reached into her robes and pulled out the letter and handed it to her Aunt, who read it quickly before passing it to her husband.

'Oh Ollie, you should have told up' she said reaching over to give Ollie a comforting hug 'don't worry everything is going to be alright.'

'Yes, it's going to be ok, Harry always manages to get out of trouble, Gabby will find him in no time' Lupin added.

Ollie gave a small sob into her Aunt's jumper, letting out all the emotion she had bottled up over the last two days out.

'Hey shhh' her aunt said stroking Ollie's hair soothingly. Finally Ollie pulled out of Tonk's arms 'Thanks ' she muttered wiping away the last few tears.

'Now while I understand your reasons, I can't let you go unpunished for breaking school rules' Lupin said firmly.

'Please don't ban me from the quidditch match next Saturday' Ollie begged. 'Samuels would kill me and then resurrect me just to kill me again!'

'You'll get a month's set of detentions, helping Professor Longbottom in the greenhouses' he said making a mental note to tell Neville in the morning.

'Ollie just keep your head down and try not to get in anymore trouble' Tonks advised giving her one last hug. 'If I hear anything back in the Auror office I'll let you know' she added leading Ollie to the door 'now off to bed!'

* * *

><p>Harry Potter's emerald green eyes opened slowly, trying to make out shapes in the darkness.<p>

'So sleeping beauty has finally woken up' a voice said in the blackness.

Harry turned his head towards the source of the noise. 'Carrow' he replied, recognising the sound of the death eater. He reached into his pocket to grab his wand, it had gone.

Carrow must have noticed the rustling, 'We've taken your wand Potter' he said gleefully.

Harry tried to stand up to face the death eater, but felt a heavy weight on his left ankle, which prevented him from doing so. 'Where am I?' he asked

'I can't tell you that'

Harry sighed frustrated at his position. 'Ok why am I still alive?' he asked finally, under normal circumstances he should be dead by now.

'The Mistress wants to keep you alive' Carrow replied, placing a plate of bread and a glass of water next to Harry, whose eyes were now becoming accustomed to the darkness.

'What does she want with me?' Harry asked as Carrow walked towards the door on the other side of the room.

Carrow turned around and looked at Harry directly in the eyes, grinning maliciously.

'Potter, what do you know about the exiled druids of Anglesey?'


	11. Chapter 10

'Now Ollie, I want you to start cleaning these pots' Professor Longbottom ordered putting a huge pile of soil covered terracotta pots in front of Ollie on the work bench. 'Just spray them with this' he led up a bottle of blue coloured potion and then passed them to her.

'Sir, may I ask why they have to be clean, since they will only be covered in dirt again next lesson?' Ollie asked, inspecting the blue potion carefully.

'Good question Ollie' the professor replied with a smile 'it's good to be inquisitive. You see Ollie these pots are going to be used as the home for the next set of mandrakes are reproduced and I'm expecting a bumper crop this year. Since they'll only be babies they'll need a clean sterile home, before they grow and need to be repotted, you understand?'

Ollie nodded her head and set to work. It was dull and repetitive, spraying and wiping the small pots until they were clean. She supposed it could have been worse. Jon told her, somewhat gleefully, that Greengrass had got a month's detention cleaning the dungeons with his head of house plus another two weeks from the Headmistress since he was a prefect and should have known better and should've not attack a younger student.

'That was a cool move you did at the Quidditch match, yesterday' Professor Longbottom commented. 'It looked almost like a wronski feint, but adapted to the chasers position. I thought the Ravenclaw captain was going to plough into the ground, trying to tackle you'.

'Did you play quidditch professor?' Ollie asked, putting down the bottle to look at her professor.

'No!' he replied, laughing. 'I was a nightmare on a broomstick! I just followed quidditch like most teenage boys, besides I could not have spent six years sharing a dormitory with Harry Potter and not know what a wronski feint was, it was one of his favourite moves! He continued laughing, reminiscing about his disastrous first flying lesson.

'You were friends with my Dad?'

'Didn't you know?'

'Dad doesn't talk much about his life before he had me' Ollie replied sadly. 'Did Dad have lots of friends?' she asked curiously.

'Come with me' the professor replied, putting down the pot he had been marking and leading Ollie to his small office which was connected to the back of the greenhouse. Ollie looked around the small messy room. Parchment and book covered almost every surface with strange plants lining the desk and windowsill.

'Ah ha!' he announced triumphantly, pulling an old photo album off the top shelf of the small crooked bookcase in the corner of the room. Quickly he flicked through the pages of moving photographs until he came across a picture of a group of teenagers smiling proudly at the camera. He showed Ollie the picture.

'Dumbledore's Army, spring 1996' she said, reading the label at the bottom of the page. 'Is that Dad standing in the middle?' she asked pointing towards the skinny black haired boy standing in the middle of the group of people, standing between a tall red haired boy and a bushy brown haired girl.

'Yes' Professor Longbottom replied 'he was the leader of the DA'

'The DA?' As in the same DA which Heather told me about when I asked her about the old galleon framed in greenhouse three?'

'Ah, my DA galleon, we used them to communicate so we did not get caught. Hermione, the girl next your Dad and one of his best friends made them.'

'Heather said her Aunt had one?'

'Yes, that's Lavender' he said pointing at a girl with a mass of long curly brown hair held back by a bright pink hair band. 'Seamus wasn't in the DA when Colin took this picture; he joined a few weeks later after Harry's interview knocked some sense into him.'

'Dad actually gave an interview?' Ollie asked incredulously. The Dad she knew hated going out in public and did everything to not be recognised.

'You know nothing about your father's school years?' Professor Longbottom asked, taking a deep breath wondering if he was the right person to tell Ollie about the horrible fifth year.

Ollie nodded continuing to stare at the photo.

'At the end of your father's fourth year he witnessed the return of Voldemort. However the ministry did not want to believe what he and Dumbledore were saying so labelled them as liars and delusional. The ministry then started to control the school, so we formed this resistance group call Dumbledore's Army' Professor Longbottom told Ollie, giving her a brief basic outline of why the DA was formed.

Ollie continued to flick through the album, curiously glancing at the pictures. She passed a picture of a toad, a quidditch match and a funny looking plant, stopping when she reached a pictured of three teenagers smiling wearily at the camera. It was a boy, well young adult sitting down by a wall, with two girls on either side of him, pointing to the graffiti above their heads: _Dumbledore's Army still recruiting._

'Is that Aunt Luna?' Ollie asked, peering closely at the moving photograph, watching as the people went from looking tired to smiling proudly at the camera to looking around nervously like they did not want to get caught.

The Herbology professor looked over his pupil's shoulder at the picture. 'Yes' he replied sadly, staring at the blond haired girl, the girl who got away. 'And that's Ginny Weasley who is currently captaining the England team, who are playing today' he said pointing at the other girl in the photograph.

'No way, you knew Ginny Weasley?' Ollie asked in amazement.

'You've heard of her?'

'She's my quidditch idol, I'd love to be able to fly like her, she's incredible. I can't believe Luna never mentioned she went to school with her!' Ollie replied excitedly.

'They were really good friends.'

'Seriously?'

The professor nodded his head as Ollie looked closer at her Godmother aged 16 in the photograph. She looked so different. Well she still had blond hair and delicate features but now her hair was cut in a long silky bob without a hair out of place while in the photo it was long and wild. It was her eyes which had changed the most, Ollie thought. In the picture they seemed to have this dreamlike quality to them. It was like Luna was not really seeing what everyone else was seeing, she was lost in her own world. The Luna Ollie knew just had normal eyes.

'Aunt Luna looks so different' she commented handing the album back to her professor who put it back on the top shelf.

'You're close to Luna?' he asked curiously.

'She's my godmother' Ollie replied 'I used to see her all the time but now she has Rolf'

'Rolf?'

'Rolf, her horrible annoying boyfriend'

Neville's stomach sank at the mention that Luna was not single. Even after eleven years he still had a special place in his heart for Luna Lovegood. She had brought out the best in him and had encouraged him to persevere through the war. She had supported him when times were tough and had been one of the first people to believe in him when he decided to reform the DA. Her hopeful outlook on life had brightened some of the darkest days. When she had been captured by the Death Eaters he had been so scared. It had taken him a while to realise that he loved her. It wasn't just friend love it was love love. He was so happy to see her in the Room of Requirement before the battle started. She had grabbed his hand and given it a reassuring squeeze, after a shy peck on the lips she had slipped out of the room to help Harry.

He had gone the through the battle with this lips tingling from the feeling of her lips on his and a burning hope in his heart that they could be together after all of this. For a few blissful weeks they had been together, comforting each other after all the death and destruction however as the weeks progressed and the funerals kept coming, they began to drift apart. He was so focused on his own grief and guilt that he had survived and others had not that he did not realise that Luna was hurting too. She had come to him with the minister's letter, telling her about her father's death and he had done nothing. Next thing he knew, Luna had disappeared and so had Harry.

'Has your father found anyone?' He asked curiously trying to push Luna's face from his mind.

'No' Ollie replied sadly 'I wish he had, but he hasn't. I asked Tonks about it once and she just said that Dad still loved someone he knew at school, but she did not give me a name. Do you know who it was, professor?' she asked

'Ollie, I think you should get back to cleaning those pots, you've had a long enough break and I want all those pots clean before I let go' Professor Longbottom said shortly, changing the subject and not answering her question. He guided her out the office and back to the main greenhouse. Of course he knew who Tonks was talking about. Everyone who had been at Hogwarts had known about Harry and Ginny and how in love they were. Neville sighed, they were so perfect for each other, but he knew it was not his place to tell Ollie about her father and his former girlfriend, who knows what she would do with the information.

Ollie also sighed heavily as she went back to the work bench and picked up the cleaning potion. Squirt, squirt, wipe, squirt, squirt, wipe. She thought about all the things the Herbology professor had told her. Her Dad was a leader of a student resistance group? The image of Dumbledore's Army hand been burnt into her mind, all those people, all of her Dad's friends, why had she never heard of them before?

* * *

><p>'Good to have you back Tonks, how was Hogwarts?' Ron Weasley asked as he welcomed his work colleague into his section of the immensely busy and messy Auror department.<p>

'As eventful as ever' Tonks replied with a smile.

'And how is Remus?' Ron asked shuffling through a bunch of papers.

'Ok, back to teaching now, this transformation was one of the worst he has had in a long time'

'Well we've been assigned to work on a new case together'

'You've finished with Gringotts?'

'There was nothing else to discover apart from the fact that these people are very good at doing what they do, so the case has now been marked as unsolved though the goblins are still monitoring the situation.'

'So, new case' Tonks stated sinking into the chair next to Ron, ready to assess the information, Ron had gathered.

'Well' he began opening the file and showing her the pictures contained in the document. 'Law enforcement had this case first after they had been notified by the muggle police. Woman, early 20s, petite, long red hair' he listed pointing at the photograph of her dead body 'has no obvious signs of the cause of her death came up in the muggle post mortem...'

'...which points to the use of the Avada Kadavra spell' Tonks finished grimly

'Yes, that's why the case was transferred to the Auror department.'

'Were the people over at Law Enforcement able to find out the identity of the woman?' Tonks asked

Ron flicked through the file and pulled out a piece of paper. 'The muggle police identified her a Jolene Mathews, reported missing by her family just over a month before her body was found.'

'Any other information?'

'There were scorch marks on various trees around the area and signs of a fight or some sort of struggle. Also this was found on the forest floor' and he handed a small silver badge over to Tonks, who held it up to her face so she could examine it closely.

'A three headed snake' she remarked, turning the badge over in her hand. 'Is that all we have to go on, no other leads apart from a three headed snake?'

'Yes' Ron replied leaning back in his chair. 'Dawlish must really hate us' he stated 'I don't know where to begin with this investigation.

'Well let's start by finding out all the organisations that had the three headed snake as their symbol and we'll work from there. How's Ginny?' she asked as an afterthought 'is she ok?'

'Yeah, she'll be fine, she's just a bit shaken, battered and bruised from the fall.' Ron replied.

'But she'll be back to flying soon?'

'If Mum has her way, Ginny will never be allowed near a broom again!' Ron said remembering his Mum's fussing over her only daughter. 'Ginny just wants to get out of bed and back on her broom as quickly as possible.'

'What exactly happened, the prophet did not say much apart from having a giant picture of her falling off her broom on the front page?' Tonks asked as they walked towards the records room.

'She was attacked by a rouge bludger' Ron replied. 'It was just like my second year, when Dobby set his bludger on Harry, accept this one was more vicious and knocked Ginny off her broom 150 feet in the air. Seamus over in the department of magical games and sports said they are investigating what happened and that he'd let me know if they found anything.'

They stopped outside the ancient records room door. The records room contained records of almost everything since records began and held a vast wealth of knowledge, therefore there was always one ministry employee on guard, watching over the room at all times, so nothing could happen to it. Tonks rummaged around in her bag to find the password of the week which she had written down on a scrap of paper. Ever since the break-in into the ministry security had been tightened and you needed to give the password or phrase to the guard before they were allowed access to the records. Bits of paper and parchment flew everywhere as Tonks practically emptied out half of her bag to find the slip of parchment.

'Got it!' she announced, holding up the scrap of parchment with the password on it triumphantly. She hastily stuffed everything else back into her bag haphazardly before marching towards the door. Tonks knocked three times on the old wooden door, before a hatch was opened. 'Password?' the woman behind the door asked.

'Acromantula' Tonks replied as Ron stood behind her shuddering at the mention of the giant spiders. The lock clicked and the door opened.

'You dropped this' Ron said holding out a photograph which had fallen out of Tonk's bag.

'Oh thanks Ron' Tonks replied as they walked through the records room, trying to work out where to start.

'It's nice to know he's happy' Ron commented

It took a while for Tonks to work out who Ron was referring to. 'Oh Ron' she replied fishing into her bag to find the photo he had just given back to her. It was a picture of Harry sitting on the sofa in their lounge with Teddy on one side of him and Millie on the other; they were grinning and waving at the person taking the picture.

'We've known you're in contact with Harry for a long time Tonks' Ron sad sadly taking a closer look at the photograph. 'Millie sometimes tells Victoire and Molly about her Uncle Harry. We just wish he would come and see us.'

'Ron, what I'm about tell you does not leave this room' Tonks said suddenly turning very serious. 'You can't tell anyone, not Hermione, not your parents and especially not Ginny'

Ron nodded slowly waiting to hear about his missing best friend.

'Harry would come back if he could but he can't, he has to look after something incredibly important.'

'He could just pop in...'

'Ron he's not allowed back into this country!' Tonks said in a hushed voice, less the witch on guard duty heard them.

'What?'

'I don't know the absolute details just that he is incredibly secretive about his comings and goings, we only see him a couple of times a year, birthdays and during the summer holidays but that is about it.'

'I just wish he could have been there for my wedding and Rose's naming ceremony.'

'He was there Ron' Tonks replied whispering as the witch on guard duty walked past them.

'Can I help you?' she asked.

'Can you point us to where all the records of magical organisations are?' Ron asked quickly, eager to carry on his conversation with Tonks.

'Take the next left and you should all the information you need next to the witch hunts of the Middle Ages' she replied before striding off.

'She's worse than Madam Prince' Ron remarked as they made their way down the rows of shelves. 'Anyway you said Harry was at our wedding?'

'And Rose's naming' Tonks replied reading the names off the files trying to see any with the symbol on it.

'But how, we didn't see him?'

'Do you remember that wizard that stormed out of the marquee at your wedding when he saw Ginny dancing with her boyfriend at the time?'

'That was Harry?' Ron asked in disbelief, remembering the red haired man who had marched out of the wedding reception. At the time he had just though it was one of his numerous Weasley cousins his mother had invited, who did not like the fact that the only girl of the huge Weasley clan had a boyfriend. 'Don't tell me he was the wizard that gave Rosie her stuffed Hippogriff? She absolutely adores it!'

'Yeah that was Harry' Tonks replied. 'Found it!' she cried reaching up to lift a small dusty file off the top shelf. 'The Druids?'

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><p>'Thought you might want to see something of the outside world' Rookwood's voice came through the darkness, his face illuminated by a single candle. He threw a newspaper down at Harry, who glanced at the front page eagerly. To his horror, he saw a picture of Ginny being knocked off her broom by a bludger and falling to the ground.<p>

'It's amazing what a small ball can do' Rookwood remarked smirking in the darkness.

'Is she ok?' Harry asked worriedly

'I expect she'll be fine, it's a shame the mistress' bludger did knock her off her broom when she was higher.'

'Why do you continue torture me?' Harry cried out 'who are you and what do you want with me?'

Rookwood just laughed and walked away towards the door, leaving Harry once again in the darkness.

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><p><strong>I hope you liked it, please review! :)<strong>


	12. Chapter 11

Harry Potter sat against the wall. He felt so weak. He had been trapped in the same cellar, chained to the floor and only having bread and water every other day for weeks. He had watched as the days had passed, the winter's sun the only light which filtered in through the small window into the normally dark and damp cellar. He had tried everything to escape, but it was impossible to transform into his animagus form without his wand and Kreacher had not appeared when he had called him.

Harry now could finally fully understand what it had been like for Luna and Mr Ollivander to have been trapped in the cellar of Malfoy Manor during the war. He knew for a fact that he was not in Malfoy manor. Firstly since the end of the last war, Draco and his mother had tried their best redeem themselves and stay away from dark magic. Draco was now working as an informant at the IDA. The cellar was also the wrong shape to be the one at the manor. This cellar was roughly circular in shape and was made out of cold dark stone. It was as if the cellar had been dug out of the rock. At the end opposite to where Harry was chained up was a set of old rickety stairs which lead up to where his captors seemed to be.

He knew it was now winter since snow had started to fall at block up the small window, which was his only light source. He spent most of his time trying to work out why he was where his was. The badge Rookwood had been wearing had been a Runespoor, the three headed snake. He also knew from past conversations with Hermione back when they were on the run, that it was also the Ancient Rune symbol for the number three. That symbol had followed him; Dolohov had also been wearing that symbol back in Egypt and so had Lestrange when Harry had cornered him in Bulgaria.

That symbol must mean something, Harry thought, casting his mind back to his and Gabby's suspicions about the cause of the out breaks in Azkaban, could she be behind this? In his first years at the IDA he had spent his time rounding up wanted dark wizards around Europe. He had caught his old classmate and nemesis Goyle on the run in Switzerland and he had duelled a very angry Alecto Carrow by the side of a lake in Northern Italy. That had actually been an interesting fight ending with one of Alecto's creative spells back firing at causing her serious damage.

But none of them had been wearing that badge. Egypt had been the turning point. Dolohov had been wearing the badge, he had talked about ancient magic and a sacrifice, Harry's mind drifted back...he could still remember her screams...her pleas for help..._Daddy, Daddy please save me_..._Daddy help me_... _Papa, ne le laisse pas me prendre!_

Harry tried to block out those thoughts before they consumed him. He had found her, Dolohov was now dead and Ollie was safe. Carrow had mentioned Druids, specifically the exiled druids of Anglesey. What did they have to anything? History of magic had been one of his worst subjects at school, but in those lessons Professor Binns never mentioned druids, only the goblin rebellions but he knew that Anglesey was a big island off Wales which had been home to a group of Druids at the time of the Roman invasion. What was so special about these exiled ones?

Suddenly a shaft of light hit Harry's face as the wooden door at the end of the cellar opened. Harry lifted his hand to shield his eyes from the blinding light. 'Who is it? He called out.

'Well well well Mr Potter, we meet again at last' a high pitched girly voice replied.

'Umbridge'

'Oh, it feels so good to have you all tied up and powerless' she remarked gleefully

'What do you want with me?' Harry asked, standing up his legs weak and wobbly from lack of food and exercise.

'The time has come for my revenge Mr Potter' she replied, her toad like face smirking in the darkness, before flicking her wand at him.

Harry found himself in a crumpled heap, lying on the cold ground. Four figures wearing black cloaks, with their hoods up, were circling him whilst muttering under their breath. They all wore the three headed snake symbol. Harry glanced around, it was night, the almost full moon was high in the sky and the stars were shining brightly. It looked as if he was on a mountain at the edge of a cave. He spotted his wand lying alongside bubbling cauldron just inside the entrance of the cave. He was so close to it, if only he could reach it.

The cloaked people stopped circling him and slowly lowered their hoods. Harry looked up at them, realising that his hands were tied together behind his back. Their faces were illuminated by the fire burning at the edge of the cave. Umbridge, Carrow, Rookwood and John Dawlish, head of the Auror department, stared at the defenceless Harry.

'It's time' Umbridge announced. 'Stand up and face me' she ordered, pointing her short stubby wand at Harry, who stood up shakily. 'I want to see the fear in your eyes, I want to hear you beg for mercy, Crucio!' she cried.

It felt as if a thousand white hot knives were piercing every part of his body. Harry clamped his mouth together, biting on the inside of his lips to hold them together, trying to hold back his cries. He was not going to give her the satisfaction of hearing him scream. The pain disappeared as she lowered her wand, observing Harry with morbid curiosity and disgust. Harry was still standing, though only just, he had locked his knees in an attempt to remain standing and now they were shaking. He was breathing heavily a trickle of sweat was making its way down his brow.

'The potion only requires the last ingredients mistress' Dawlish announced, bringing the steaming cauldron towards Umbridge, bowing as he paced it in front of her. The whole set up reminded Harry about his ordeal in the graveyard where he had witnessed Voldemort's rebirth.

'What are you doing?' Harry asked lifting his head to look her in the eyes, trying to read her thoughts and find out what she was planning.

'Tut tut, Mr Potter, ligilimency won't work on me' she replied as Harry hit a mental barrier. Umbridge smirked as she fingered her wand, debating what to do next. 'You want to know what I'm up to. Well since you'll be dead in a matter of minutes I think I can let you know why.'

Harry watched her carefully as he edged towards the side of the cave trying to get to his wand. His hands fumbling behind his back trying to untie to rope which held his hand together. Dawlish was sat tiring the potion while the other two death eaters were inside the cave. It was just him and Umbridge, who began to tell her story.

'At the time of the Roman invasion of Britain there was a group of druids living on the island of Anglesey. They were peaceful magical people, believing in non-violence and spent most of their time focusing on the art of healing, potions making and wandlore. However the Romans soon came and saw these people as a threat. They launched an attack on the unsuspecting Druids. Only three made it out alive and they vowed revenge on these invaders who had heartlessly killed their wives and children. So they developed a potion a purifying potion, a way to wipe out their enemies. These druids captured a Roman centurion and used his blood in the potion. At that moment, so the legend says the whole Roman century who attacked the druids were killed'

So what has this got to do with me?' Harry asked finally getting his hands free but keeping them behind his back to maintain the illusion.

'Inquisitive as ever, Mr Potter' she replied gesturing for Dawlish the bring Harry's wand towards her. 'The potion contains the blood of different types of half breeds from around the world. When your blood sacrifice and the pheonix feather is added they will all just die.'

'How do you know that will happen, you said the story was just a legend?' Harry asked horrified, doing everything in his power to remain under control and not launch himself at her.

'This potion has worked throughout history Potter' Umbridge replied, taking his wand off Dawlish and inspecting it. 'The ancient Egyptians used it to kill off their enemies, the Chinese emperors also used it on their prisoners, Grindelwald was also going to use it for the greater good however Dumbledore stopped him before he could at the blood.

'Why do you need my blood?' Harry asked trying to buy himself some time and work up the magical energy to perform some wandless magic.

'You do like to ask questions don't you Potter? Umbridge replied smirking slightly. 'This potion requires a blood sacrifice of someone with a noble heart to make it work' she said gesturing for Dawlish to come closer a silver knife now held in his hands.

'Why did Dolohov kidnap my daughter back in Egypt?' Harry asked desperately as Dawlish approached him, lowering the knife towards his neck. 'Ah yes, little Miss Ollie Potter' Umbridge replied in that annoying voice of hers. 'Dolohov knew that if he kidnapped her we would be able to get to you easily, unfortunately he did not wait for reinforcements and paid the price. Now I can't delay this any longer, goodbye Mr Potter!'

As Dawlish brought the knife towards his neck Harry closed his eyes and built up his magic. Suddenly he unclasped his hands knocked Dawlish out of the way and summoned his wand, knocking over the cauldron filled with the potion in the process.

'NOOOO!' Umbridge shrieked drawing her own wand and turning Harry who was now hiding in the shadows near the entrance to the cave.

Rookwood and Carrow heard the commotion and came rushing out of the cave to find a screaming Umbridge and a sobbing Dawlish who was lying on the floor clutching his hand to his chest. The two death Eaters launched an attack on Harry as Umbridge watched, distraught that her plan had been ruined.

It took months to brew that potion plus years of tracking and collecting the blood of all the half breeds. The Potion had contained the blood of werewolves, veela, vampires, centaurs, giants plus any other blood of any other half breeds her minions had come across on their travels. She wanted to purify the wizarding world so only the true magical people would live. This was the first stage in her plan for domination and revenge. After she had achieved the eradication of the half breeds she would use Dawlish. The Current Minister, Kingsley would have to stand down as a result of public uproar and she would place Dawlish as the new minister for magic and rule through him. Dawlish always did everything he could to please his mistress. Now all her plans were ruined and Potter was free.

Umbridge suddenly looked up and found Potter heading towards her; she glanced around and noticed the bodies of Carrow and Rookwood lying on the ground, dead. Harry had clearly wasted no time finishing them off, having been tormented by them for the past month.

Harry pointed his wand at her, panting slightly catching his breath from his previous fight. 'Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you now' He said.

'Mr Potter, I know you, you don't kill' Umbridge replied smirking slightly.

'You knew me as an angry fifteen year old' Harry replied 'may I remind you that I have killed, I kill those who threaten me or my family. I killed Voldemort, I killed Dolohov, I have killed Lestrange and look to your right and you'll see I have killed Carrow and Rookwood.'

Umbridge looked into Harry's eyes which were now a dark deadly green. For the first time in her life she truly felt powerless. This boy was not a boy any more he was a man and a force to be reckoned with. He was no longer the young idealistic school boy but a man hardened by fighting. 'Now Mr Potter, this isn't how this has to end, I can change my ways, take me to Azkaban, take me to the ministry for questioning please don't kill me!' She begged taking a step backwards.

'And how am I meant to know that you're not just going to plot your revenge and escape again' Harry replied, becoming aware of a stabbing sensation in his chest. 'You and your group kidnapped my daughter and my friends, injured someone I care a lot about and killed hundreds of innocent people. You know I'm telling the truth' Harry stated holding out his hand to show Umbridge to show her the faint scars on the back of it 'I must not tell lies'

'They were not people!' Umbridge shrieked 'They were filthy half breeds who needed to be eradicated' and she launched an attack on Harry. Harry quickly blocked the curses she was aiming at him and continued to push her backwards. Harry fired one last spell at Umbridge which hit her straight in the chest. She lost her balance and arms flapping fell off the edge, rolling and bouncing down the rocky mountainside until she reached the bottom of the valley in a broken and bloody heap.

Harry staggered backwards away from the edge. He felt drained both physically and magically. He closed his eyes momentarily trying to think of a way to escape from wherever he was. Harry's eyes snapped open as he heard footsteps shuffling towards him. It was Dawlish coming towards him, the silver knife held tightly in his uninjured hand.

John Dawlish had watched in horror as his Mistress and love had fallen off the edge of the mountain. The cause was over and he was on the losing side, however the only person who knew about this was Potter. He needed to get rid of the evidence. As he watched Potter regain his strength he crawled over to where the ceremonial knife was lying on ground. He slowly picked it up and headed towards Potter, knife raised ready to strike, aiming for the heart.

He missed his target Potter moved and he caught his arm. Potter let out a cry in pain glancing at the blood that was now seeping through his already dirty torn shirt. Dawlish seized his chance and pushed the defenceless Harry against the cold stone wall of the cave bringing the bloddy knife up to his victim's throat. Harry struggled and with a surge of wandless magic through Dawlish across the cave. Dawlish's head hit the top of the cave and there was a loud crack. Harry slumped to the ground and whispered the name of his faithful house elf before the darkness claimed him.

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><p><em>Ok I'm going to beg: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can you review! I found this chapter extremely hard to write and I would love to know what you thought about it. Next chapter should be up next Thursday. I would love to get up to 20 reviews...ok maybe 19 or 18 would be more reasonable...anyway please review. I am on a writing spree at the moment and this would really encourage me to continue. Thanks for reading! :) x<em>

_PLUS a big big thank you to lysen5972 for helping me out with the french, in this chapter and the next one!  
><em>


	13. Chapter 12

Gabby looked around the dark common room, though it was early in the morning, she knew that the winter's sun would not be rising for another couple of hours. She walked towards the set of stairs at the back of the common room, which she presumed let to the student's dormitories. When Winky had apparated her here, she had not mentioned how to get to the girl's dormitories quickly and she needed to find Ollie quickly.

When Kreacher had woken her and Dennis up at three in the morning she had been very annoyed with the old house elf, however as soon as he had announced that his master was calling him, they had quickly jumped out of bed and had launched into rescue mode. They threw on some clothes, grabbed their wands and held onto Kreatcher's old bony hands as he took them to where Harry was summoning him.

They had landed on the side of a mountain, quite near the top. Gabby had looked around quickly, catching sight of the bodies of two dead Death Eaters lying on the ground, before following Dennis and Kreacher into the nearby cave. They found Harry unconscious, barely breathing, lying against the side of the cave. He was covered in cuts and bruises, his leg twisted in an odd angle and his wand held in his limp hand. They also spotted John Dawlish, the corrupt head of the Auror Department lying opposite Harry at the other end of the cave and he appeared not to be moving. Gabby had found a silver badge on the floor which she had quickly turned into an emergency porkey which took them to St Mungo's. She had left Dennis at the Hospital while she had summoned Winky to take her to Hogwarts. She needed to get to Ollie, Harry's magical voice.

So here she was in foreign territory, the Gryffindor Common room, debating whether to take the left set of stairs or the right. She made a quick decision and raced up the left flight of stairs and was relieved to find herself outside the 3rd year girl's dormitory.

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><p><em>Ollie was running down a hill, laugher ripped out of her mouth as Millie and Teddy chased after her. Her black hair was blowing around wildly as it escaped from the purple ribbon that was meant to be holding it back. <em>

_Suddenly the cool grass between her feet became hot sand. She ran across the sand, through busy streets, a market place, past ancient monuments. Teddy and Millie were no longer chasing her, it was now a sole figure in a black cape with a snake upon his chest. She ran and ran, her feet pounding against the hot sand, but he kept on getting closer and closer. He raised his wand, she tripped over a rock buried in the sand which sent her flying, light flashed out of his wand and she was floating in a sea of blackness, never ending black.._

'Ollie, Ollie, tu dois te lever' came a voice in quiet french, urging her to wake up.'Réveilles toi!' the voice said slightly louder shaking her body.

Ollie slowly opened her eyes and found herself staring at Gabrielle Delacour. 'Gabby, pourquoi est tu ici?' she asked, wondering why Gabby was in her dormitory.

'Je ne peux pas t'expliquer maintenant, mais tu dois venir avec moi' Gabby replied, gesturing for Ollie to come with her.

'Pourquoi?'

'Ollie your father has been found' Gabby said reverting back to English as Ollie slowly got out of her incredibly comfy four-posted bed. 'Quickly!' Gabby said looking at her watch as Ollie threw on some clothes 'we need to get to the headmistress' office' Gabby told Ollie.

'Will McGonagall be up at this time in the morning?' Ollie asked as she quickly grabbed her wand off her bedside table and they raced down the spiral staircase, through the empty common room and towards McGonagall's office.

'Winky said she would alert her to the situation' Gabby replied as they came to a halt in front of the stone gargoyle, which guarded the entrance to the Headmistress' office and quarters. 'Any ideas on how to get in?' Gabby asked nervously, she had never needed to pass a stone gargoyle to get to her headmistress' office at Beaubatons.

'You need to a password to get in' Ollie replied

'Can't we just force our way through?' Gabby asked examining the stone bird

'It won't work' Ollie said, watching a frustrated Gabby pace in front of the gargoyle.

'Ok, password relating to Minerva McGonagall' Gabby muttered, trying to remember all that had been mentioned in McGonagall's file at the IDA. 'Dumbledore' she tried 'Quidditch', the gargoyle did not move 'tabby' still no movement. 'Come on Gabby' she said under her breath. 'Elphinstone Urquart' she said, remembering that name that had been had been mentioned in her file. The gargoyle moved, and a triumphant Gabby and Ollie race up the steps.

'I knew you could do it!' Ollie exclaimed as they knocked on the old wooden door. 'Nice job with the ministry by the way' she commented as they waited.

'How did you know it was me?'

'Gabby, I'm not completely blind' Ollie replied 'It was just like the time you infiltrated the Bulgarian Embassy in Paris, no one could work out who it was and you were incredibly smug'

'Come in' a Scottish voice came from within the office, cutting off Gabby's response. Ollie lifted the heavy latch and they walked in. McGonagall was sitting behind her desk, her grey hair tied into a messy plait and she was wearing an old tartan dressing gown, indicating she had just been woken up.

'What is so urgent that you insisted that I should be woken up and this most ungodly hour in the morning, Mademoiselle Delacour?' she asked, gesturing for the pair to sit in the two wooden chairs she had conjured up in front of her desk.

'Professor you must understand that what I'm about to tell you is top secret classified information' Gabby replied seriously. McGonagall nodded, eager to hear more. 'Harry Potter was on a mission for the IDA, when he was kidnapped, he has now been found but has had to be taken to St Mungo's as a result of his injures.' Gabby said as Ollie gave a small gasp, Gabby said her dad had been found, she had not mentioned he was injured.

'So what has this got to do with Miss Potter?' McGonagall enquired, peering over the top of her glasses, looking at Ollie 'Why couldn't you have told her this in a letter?'

'I would have done, though I would have preferred to tell her face to face, however it's not so simple. When my fiancé and I discovered and took him to St Mungo's the healers told us that he was in a life threatening condition and asked if we could contact his magical voice.'

Ollie could not believe what she was hearing; her Dad was in a life threatening condition?

'An Ollie is his magical voice?' the headmistress asked leaning back tiredly into her chair. A thirteen year old girl had her father's life in her hands?

'Harry doesn't trust anyone as much as he trusts Ollie' Gabby replied sadly 'he knows she will do what is best'

'No one was named?' McGonagall asked weakly

'Only one more, but since they have not been in contact for over a decade she is no longer valid' Gabby stated looking at the older witch, who nodded sadly understanding who Gabby was referring to.

Ollie tried to take in that had been said, she found herself feeling numb, she did not know what would happen to her if her father did not survive. Would she had to find her Godmother and live with Luna and horrible Rolf? Or would she be stuck with Gabby and Dennis? Or would she be placed with Aunt Dora, or the Malfoy family, her closest living relatives?

Ollie found herself standing up and walking towards the fireplace. Everything was a blur, she emerged from the emerald green flames finally realising she was holding on tightly to Gabby's hand.

Everything at St Mungo's was white: the floors, the walls, the healers' coats and the nurses' uniforms. She had never been in a place that was so clean; she could practically taste to disinfectant potion the cleaners had used to clean the room. Ollie was then dragged up several flights of stairs before being ushered into a private room.

'This Mr Potter's magical voice' Gabby announced to the healer who was currently examining Harry. The healer glanced up from monitoring Harry's heart beat and was shocked to see a small girl standing next to the blond haired witch.

'A Child?' he asked in disbelief.

'His daughter' Gabby replied.

'Do you know what you have to do?' he asked Ollie kindly, watching as she gravitated towards her father's bedside, her violet eyes wide open in shock at her Dad's appearance. She had not seen him since the beginning of July, now here he was pale and lifeless, lying in a hospital bed attached to magical machines.

'Yes' Ollie replied quietly. 'I'm Dad's voice, I have to decide if the time comes and he reaches a poor quality of life, if you stop trying to revive him.

'Can you do that? The healer asked seriously 'Mr Potter is in a very serious condition and we do not know if he will pull through'

Ollie looked up from her father's side, where she was holding his hand 'I believe all life is special and a gift' she replied ' and everything possible must be done to save it, however I also know that Dad would hate to be spend the rest of his days, attached to a machine, not being able to do anything, trapped inside his own head, alone and I know if that were the case it would probably be kinder for him, as he puts it, to take the train and begin the last great adventure. His wishes must come first' a small tear escaped from one of her eyes and made its way slowly down her cheek. She stroked the back of her Dad's hand, willing him to pull through.

The healer nodded, this girl was a girl who had a wise head on her young shoulders and he understood what she was saying. Gabby finished her frantic conversation with Dennis, who was standing silently in the corner of the room before coming over to sit next to Ollie. Dennis followed her over, after giving Ollie a comforting hug and Gabby a quick peck on the lips, he left the room.

Ollie hardly noticed Dennis leave, she was too busy watching her Dad's chest slowly rise and fall unevenly as she continued to listed to the regular beeping noise which was coming from the machine that was monitoring her father's heart.

'What wrong with him, why won't he wake up?' she asked the healer.

'Mr Potter came to use with a fractured skull, severe concussion, several broken ribs, a punctured lung and a shattered femur. He also showed signs of serve trauma to his body, probably due to the use of the cruciatus curse on his person and malnutrition. We have patched him up, giving him blood replenishing and nutrient potions, but it is his heart which is worry us the most. Since we do not have access to his medical history at the moment' the healer shot an accusatory glance at Gabby 'we aren't completely sure why it is so weak at the moment but we will continue to monitor it carefully until your house elf brings us all the details.'

Ollie spent the rest of the morning glued to her father's side hoping he would show some signs of life, she wished he would move, squeeze her and let her know everything was going to be ok.

Gabby had gone to find something to eat when Harry's heart rate began to increase. The beeping from the machine got closer and closer together and his breaths became shorter and shorter, it was as if something was causing him great distress.

'Papa, I'm here' Ollie whispered quietly. 'He's burning up' she told the healer who had raced into the room, placing her small hand on her father's hot sticky forehead, her cold hand brushing over his famous fading lightning scar. The healer quickly injected a calming draught into Harry's system, which immediately to effect. His heart began to a more normal rate and Ollie let out a small sigh of relief. Danger had been averted for the time being.

As the afternoon passed Harry's heart rate began to decrease, Gabby looked tiredly at Ollie, who was still sat next to her Dad, still holding his hand. The sandwich she had bought Ollie lay uneaten and untouched on her lap. Harry's breaths began to get slower and more laboured. Ollie was jogged out of her thoughts and prayers by a loud long beep, coming from the machine next to the bed. Her father's heart had stopped. Gabby reached over her instinctively and hit the large red emergency button attached to the wall next to Harry's bed.

Immediately healers rushed into the room pushing Ollie and Gabby out of their way in their haste to get to and save their patient. The pair looked on anxiously as the healer fired the Rennervate spell at Harry, causing his body to jump and shudder. The low beep continued. The Healers tried again.

'Come on Dad' Ollie said, her hand clasped together, holding her good luck pendent tightly, as the spell failed to work. 'I need you Dad, please come back' she begged.

The healers looked at each other before turning to look at Ollie. 'Please try one more time' she whispered. The Healer nodded his head solemnly, before turning back to face Harry. 'Rennervate!' he shouted firing the spell at Harry's body. Everyone in the room held their breaths, waiting to hear if this last attempt had been successful. Beep, beep came the heart monitor. Harry had come back from the dead again!

The head healer wiped his sweaty brow in relief. Ollie slowly approached the bed as the emergency healers dispersed. She watched as her father's emerald eyes flicker open to meet her violet. 'Ollie' he whispered, giving her hand a weak squeeze, before closing his eyes and falling into a peaceful sleep.

'I think your father should be fine now' the healer told Ollie. 'He seems to have past most of the danger and he just needs lots of rest' and with that he exited the room.

'He's going to be ok' Ollie repeated as Gabby gathered the small girl up into a reassuring hug.

'Come with me' Gabby said holding out her hand to Ollie.

'Do I have to go back to Hogwarts now?' Ollie asked yawning slightly.

'No' Gabby replied leading Ollie out of the hospital. 'Professor McGonagall said you could have as much time off as you need and right now you need a decent meal and a good night's sleep and with that she turned sharply on the spot. Ollie felt the familiar squeezing sensation of side long apparation take hold, she struggled the gain her balance when they landed and fell ungracefully to the ground. Picking herself up, she found herself staring at an odd house. It looked old, rickety, mismatched house. It looked like the house had been build without a real plan, the owners had just built more rooms when they had required more space. 'Gabby where are we?' she asked as Gabby lead them towards the door. 'Ollie welcome to the Burrow'

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><p><em>Hi Cherry here! I just want to say a massive THANK YOU! to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I logged on to my lap top on Friday morning and foind that the number of reviews had gone up from 15 to 28! I nearly fell off my chair in shock! You guys are amazing, thank you thank you thank you! Anyway PLEASE let me know what you thought of this chapter, next one will be up next week!<em>

_:D x  
><em>


	14. Chapter 13

Harry was floating in the darkness, feeling absolutely weightless; he was flying through blackness, completely disorientated and alone. Slowly images came towards him. There was an image of his parents, young, carefree and very much in love. This was quickly followed by an image of the house in Godric's Hollow after the attack, no longer a happy home; it was now a lone empty shell. A huge wound it its side created by the rebound of the killing curse.

Harry watched as his life flashed before his eyes, maybe he was dying? He knew it was a muggle saying that a person's life flashed before their eyes when they were close to death. He watched with curiosity as scenes from his childhood at number four Privet Drive. He watched as his younger self was pushed into the dark cupboard under the stairs, while a younger Dudley looked on in amusement. Harry remembered that feeling of loneliness and despair he had felt every time he was forced to crawl into that cupboard and had to sleep with only the spiders for company.

Then Harry saw images of himself receiving his Hogwarts letter from Hagrid, he still ranked it as the best birthday present he has ever been given. He was given entrance into a world which, for the most part, accepted him. In the magic world he had known love for the first time in his life and he had had friends: Ron, Hermione, his classmates, the Gryffindor quidditch team, Neville, Luna, the DA and most importantly, Ginny.

The Weasley's had been so good to him and the Burrow had become his second home, a place of refuge and comfort. Mrs Weasley, with her arms always waiting for an opportunity to give him a bone crushing hug, Mr Weasley, always interested to hear Harry explain something in the muggle world. Bill and Charlie, the cool older brothers, Percy the ambitious middle son, the twins, ready to make the world laugh, Ron, his best friend and finally Ginny, the only girl in the family. They had all offered him kindness and love. He had repaid them by being the reason why they had lost Fred. He still, after all these years, felt partly to blame for his death, just like he felt a pang of guilt for Colin everything he saw Dennis.

As the rest of his school life flashed in front of him, the words Ginny had shouted at him all those years ago continued to ring in his head. '_I hate you! ...Leave me alone!' _It had broken his heart and had haunted him for the past eleven years. He had half heartedly tried to move on, but to no avail, no one was like his Gin. He had snuck back into the country to attend Ron and Hermione's wedding and had stormed out of the reception in a fit of jealousy and rage at seeing her dance with another man.

He had then, a couple of years after given into Ollie's constant pleading and taken her to the quidditch world cup in Paris. Ginny's face was everywhere: posters, newspaper articles, T-shirts and even miniature models. It did not help that Ginny was Ollie's favourite player.

Another series of images bombarded Harry. Sirius falling through the veil, Dumbledore toppling off the top of the Astronomy Tower, Luna trapped in the cellar at Malfoy Manor, Hermione weak and covered in blood being cradled in an exhausted Ron's arms after their escape, Dobby on the beach and finally Snape. Harry tried to make them go away, but they kept on coming. It was like he was stuck inside a dementor, he was only seeing the worse days of his life. It was as if someone was tormenting him.

Then there was the image of Gabrielle Delacour in her final year at Beaubaton, crumpled in a corner of his office after he had informed her of her parent's murders. She had not been the same since. She and Dennis had met when he had introduced them at the IDA and they had bonded over their mutual desire to get revenge on the ones who had killed their loved ones.

Then the final scene hit him. A small child curled up in the corner of a dark cell. Her head was buried between her knees, eyes closed tightly, as she tried to block the darkness out. Egypt had been the first time he had used the Avada Kedavra spell amd actually killed someone. He had killed Dolohov for kidnapping Ollie and other people. The most worrying thing was that he did not feel any remorse, as far as he was concerned Dolohov had deserved it for taking Ollie and harming her.

Ollie had taken along time to recover after her imprisonment. She had spoken of a French woman in the cell opposite her who had been a source of comfort during her days in the darkness. By the time Harry had liberated Ollie and the other prisoners she had disappeared so he never had the opportunity to say thank you. After Egypt Harry had no mercy for dark witches and wizards, something inside his heart had hardened as he had faced the thought of losing his beloved daughter.

Suddenly he had a terrible though about what would happen to Ollie if he was going to die. He hated the way they had parted, a tearful goodbye at the beginning of the summer. He had not seen her in months and he just wanted to gather her up in his arms and tell her that he loved her one more time...

Harry felt himself land on solid ground. Cautiously he opened his eyes, the white light blinding him after her journey in the dark. He slowly stood up and looked around. He recognised where he was, Kings Cross Station aka Limbo, the place between life and death. Realising that just like last time he had arrived naked, he wished for some clothes and hastily put them on before walking over to a nearby bench and sitting down to wait, wondering if someone was going to visit him or was he going to be left in the this world void of colour.

As he sat staring into the white, thinking about what was to become of him, he felt a familiar presence sit next to him. He turned his head to see the person.

'Sirius' he whispered, looking at his Godfather for the first time in thirteen years.

'Hello Harry' Sirius replied. Harry looked closely at Sirius; he looked so different compared to the Sirius he had known. This Sirius was young and happy.

'What are you doing here?' Harry asked, puzzled as to why out of all the people who could be here it was Sirius. He wasn't disappointed he just though it might be his Mum or Dad or even Dumbledore.

'Can't I come and visit my Godson?' Sirius replied

'Yes, but...'

'...You expected your parents?'

Harry nodded.

'Take a walk with me' Sirius said, standing up. Harry followed Sirius and they started to walk through the endless white. 'Your parents wanted to come, Lily was really insistent but in the end they decided I needed to talk with you.'

'About what?'

'Ollie' Sirius replied 'I wanted to say thank you.'

'Why?'

'For looking after and loving her' Sirius replied. 'When I was alive I never knew she existed and I didn't know until Rina turned up here and told me about our child'

'You're not mad that she calls me Dad?' Harry asked, voicing one of his deepest fears.

'No Harry' his Godfather replied sadly 'I was did anything which warranted me being called Dad, apart from making her, you're the one who has raised her'

'She looks like you'

'Yeah I know' Sirius replied happily 'except her eyes, she's got Rina's eyes, bright sparkling violet.'

'Sirius why am I here?' Harry asked stopping dead in his tracks, turning up in limbo twice probably wasn't normal.

'Harry don't you remember the deathly hallows?' Sirius asked.

Suddenly a surge of realisation hit Harry. He was the owner of all the three Hallows. He owned the cloak of invisibility, which he had hidden in his robes during his capture, the resurrection stone was now locked away in the Potter high security vault and the elder wand which was resting in Dumbledore's tomb. He was the master of death.

'I have a choice?' he asked finally, looking at his godfather expectantly to find out the answer.

'Yes Harry, you do' Sirius replied, leading him over to two bowls which were hovering in the corner. 'These are the windows to the worlds' Sirius said pointing to the bowls which looked like pensives and he gestured for Harry to take a look.

Hesitantly Harry entered the bowl on the left. He watched as his parents talked happily to one another while he could see Dumbledore standing in the background, smiling with a small twinkle in his eyes. There was also a strange woman standing in the scene with long blond hair and bright violet eyes. Harry assumed this was Sirius' Rina. They all looked so happy and at peace, revelling in the last great adventure.

Harry then, without looking at Sirius, entered the bowl on the right. He was transported into a hospital in, what he assumed was St Mungo's. He watched in horror as the healers tried to revive him while a distraught Ollie watched on anxiously holding on tightly to Gabby, her eyes wide open in fear. Harry knew in the instant that he had to go back. He had to be there for his daughter, just like he had promised her all those months ago.

'I need to go back' Harry stated, when he emerged from the bowl, looking at Sirius, who gave him a reassuring smile. The white began to fade as Sirius began to slowly drift away from Harry.

'Lily and James love you!' Sirius called out 'and Rina asks one thing, can you tell Ollie that she is so proud of her and to keep her pendent safe'

'The one you gave her?' Harry shouted back, as he got further and further away.

'That pendent has been in Rina's family for several generations, I just spelt her name wrongly on the back!' Sirius said laughing before everything faded. Harry felt a sharp pain in his chest, his head was pounding and he ached all over. Slowly he opened his eyes and found his daughter standing above him.

'Ollie' he whispered tiredly before falling asleep.

* * *

><p>'This is where Dawlish's emergency beacon was coming from?' Ron asked as he walked along side Tonks up a steep mountain path, followed by a team of Aurors, their wands out ready to defend themselves. Ron caught sight of a large object blocking their path, he ran on ahead to blast it out of the way.<p>

'Merlin's beard!' he exclaimed 'It's Umbridge!' he announced, staring at the body of the former ministry of magic employee and Azkaban inmate.

Leaving two of their number to deal with Umbridge, the part of Aurors continued to climb the mountain until they came to a ledge outside a cave.

'It's Carrow and Rookwood!' Tonks announced in surprised stumbling over the bodies of the two prison escapees who part of the department had been trying to locate.

'Tonks, look at this' Ron whispered pointing to the badge pinned on Carrow's chest. It was the three headed snake.

'Ma'am, we've found Dawlish' Johnson, one of the junior aurors announced. They followed him into the cave and found Dawlish lying to the side.

'Is he dead?' Tonks asked, approaching her head of department

'No' Johnson replied. 'We're calling for emergency healers but it does not look good' he finished grimly before heading out of the cave, leaving his superiors to deal with Dawlish.

'Sir, its Tonks, can you hear me? Tonks asked pending down to reach her boss' eye level.

Dawlish blearily opened his eyes 'Tonks?'

'Yes sir, we've found you and we've just called for backup'

'Too late...plan over...operation runespoor over...all over' he whispered, his head lolling to one side.

'Sir, stay with me!' Tonks said urgently. She might not like the man but she was not going to let the head of department die on her watch. Dawlish let out a loud groan. 'Who did this to you?' she asked, trying to keep him awake until the emergency healers came.

'Potter' Dawlish murmured with some effort, before closing his eyes for the final time.

Tonks and Ron looked at each other in alarm as the other aurors looked at each other in amazement. How could Harry Potter have done this, when no one had seen him in eleven years and most importantly, where was he now?

Dennis waited until all the aurors had disaparated before he emerged from the shadows, where he had been hiding, finding out what all the aurors had discovered. He then turned on the spot and disappeared leaving the cave behind.

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><p><em>Ok before you all come, hunt me down and kill me I want to say a BIG thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I'm really really sorry for leaving you with the clif hanger from the last chapter for another week, but the stuff in this chapter I have had planned in my head practically since I started writing the story. I thought it would be a good idea to get inside Harry's head and see what was happening while he was unconscious. Anyway I promise you, we will meet the Weasleys next chapter, I've already written it, so now I've just got to proof read it, though it might take some time since I'm quite busy at the moment - stupid history essays and Biology tests!<br>_

_Please review if you're not too mad at me, as always the next chapter will be up next week_

_~Cherry :)  
><em>


	15. Chapter 14

Ollie shivered as the cool winter's wind hit her as she waited outside the odd looking house as Gabby knocked on the door.

'Who is it?' came a woman's voice from inside.

'It's Gabrielle, can I come in?' the quater-veela replied, her teeth chattering slightly.

The door opened fully to reveal a short plump middle aged woman with greying red hair. 'Come in out of the cold dear' she said to Gabby, gesturing for her to enter 'and who is this?' she asked catching sight of Ollie lurking in the dark behind Gabby.

'This is Ollie' Gabby replied hastily, as Ollie shivered violently and started jumping on the spot, trying to regain the feeling of her toes.

'Right come in' the woman replied, noticing how cold both of her visitors were. 'You're just in luck, I've just served dinner'

'Oh I'm sorry for interrupting Molly' Gabby replied, as she led them into the house.

'Don't worry dear, it's good to see you' Molly said, looking at Gabrielle. Now they were out of the dark she could see noticeable changes in the French girl's appearance from the last time she had seen her. Gabrielle looked much paler than before and had dark circles under eyes. Molly worried about Gabrielle just as much as she worried about her other children. She had taken Gabrielle under her wing after her parents had died and tried to mother her as much as possible when she was in the country. Molly quickly ushered them into the already full dining room.

'Gabrielle!' Fleur exclaimed as she saw her little sister enter the room. She quickly pushed back her chair, stood up and raced towards a surprised Gabby, giving her a big hug. 'What are you doing here?' she asked as she pulled out of the hug, still not believing her sister was here. It was the first time Fleur had seen Gabrielle since they had met up in Paris, just after Gabrielle had got engaged.

'I need to ask a huge favour' Gabby replied tiredly, she had been on the go for over 12 hours now and she knew she still had lots of business to attend to when she met up with Dennis at Headquarters.

'What is it?' Fleur asked anxiously, this was completely out of character for Gabrielle to ask for help, she had always been very independent.

'I need you to look after Ollie' Gabby whispered, looking towards the thirteen year old girl who was hovering nervously next to her. Ollie was trying to take in all of her surroundings. She had never been in a house that was so warm, inviting, homely and full. She guessed that there were about ten people crowded around the table and looked as if they were expecting more. When Ollie's name was mentioned they all turned to look at her. Ollie sank back into the nearest corner, unaccustomed to having people stare at her so intently.

Molly noticed the young girl's discomfort and dragged her towards the table, sitting her down next to her at the table and placing a bowl of warm tomato soup in front of Ollie.

'Please Fleur' Gabby begged 'we owe her father her lives' she whispered.

Mrs Weasley put a calming hand on Gabby's tense shoulders 'She can stay here' she said looking at Ollie who was eating the soup slowly.

Ollie looked up at Fleur, she recognised her from the pictures Gabby had of the two of them in her flat; however she recognised her voice from somewhere. 'You were in Egypt' she whispered

Fleur looked closely at the small girl, thinking back those tortuous days locked up in Egypt when she had been captured by a masked man. She had been placed in a cell opposite a small child who had been taken from her father. Could this be the child, whose cries still haunted her when she's asleep?

Gabby looked down at her watch 'I really should get going' she said, standing up, 'thank you so much for doing this' she told Molly.

'You're going?' Ollie asked in alarm, grabbing hold of Gabby's hand, trying to make her stay.

'Ollie, I've still got a lot of things to sort out, like trying to work out why your father was injured and missing' Gabby explained, freeing herself from Ollie's vice like grip. She then reached into her pocket. 'Give this to your Aunty Dora, when you next see her' she asked placing the three headed snake badge she had found in the cave into Ollie's hand. 'Tell her that this was found at the scene' Gabby said before, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze and kissing the top if her head.

Ollie watched sadly as Gabby disappeared out the house, before slumping back into her seat at the table in the room full of strange people. She ate the rest of soup in silence, fully aware that the other diners were watching her closely.

The awkward silence was broken by the sudden arrival of two people crashing though the front door and entering the kitchen/dining room.

'Ron!' the heavily pregnant woman exclaimed standing wobbly to her feat and embracing the red haired man.

'Hermione' he whispered, burying his head into her thick bushy hair 'sorry I'm late, crisis at work'

Those names rung bells of recognition in Ollie's brain; she had heard those names before.

'What?' Mr Weasley asked in response to his son's statement.

'Dawlish is dead' Ron stated solemnly. 'Percy says he will try and get away when he can, but everything is a bit manic at the moment' he said turning to Percy's wife, Audrey, who was sitting quietly at the other end of the table.

'And what are you doing here Tonks?' Molly asked.

Ollie looked up at the mention of her Aunt's name 'Aunty Dora' she whispered, relived to see a familiar face. Tonks walked purposefully towards her.

'Katarina, I'm afraid I have to ask you some questions'

Ollie nodded, hearing the seriousness of the situation in Tonk's voice, it must be very important. The occupants of the room turned to look at the pair curiously, whilst Ron wondered why his partner wanted to question the small black haired teenager who was sitting at the end of his parent's dining room table.

'Tonks why do you need to ask Ollie questions?' Molly asked, trying to look out for the girl who she had promised Gabrielle she would look after.

'Molly, I need to ask Katarina Potter questions concerning her father's involvement in the death of John Dawlish' Tonks replied formally.

'What?' Ron asked in surprise, as the rest of the table looked at each other in shock. _Potter?_

Tonks pulled out a battered old notebook and muggle biro from within her robes. 'Do you know anything about this?' she asked

Ollie shook her head, 'I only knew that he had been captured whilst on a mission' she replied before continuing 'then early this morning I was woken up by Gabby, who had somehow managed to break into the Gryffindor girl's dormitory and taken to St Mungo's where Dennis had taken Dad but I don't know how they found him' she finished.

'And why were you needed at St Mungo's?' Tonk's asked writing down everything Ollie was saying.

'I'm his magical voice' Ollie whispered

'He was that bad!' Tonks exclaimed, resting her pen as she peered over the top of her notebook to look at Ollie.

'He nearly didn't make it' Ollie said sadly, her eyes welling up with tears as she remembered the previous couple of hours where she nearly became an orphan for the second time.

Tonks ignored the loud gasps at Ollie's statement and carried on with her questioning so she could get to the bottom of the matter quickly. 'What did Harry say to you before he went away on this mission? Did he mention anything about Dawlish or death eaters?'

'Dad just said that I needed to be brave. I begged him to take me with him, but you know that after everything that happened in Egypt he leaves me behing, passing me from person to person' she stated angrily. 'Anyway he promised that these were the last ones and after he had dealt with them he would come back'

'Is there anything else you would like to tell me?'

Ollie reached into her pocket and pulled out the strange badge she had been given. 'Gabby said I should give this to you, she said it was found at the scene, whatever that is' she said handing it to Tonks who looked at it carefully.

'That's a runespoor' the pregnant witch named Hermione stated as she caught sight of the object. Ron and Tonks looked at each other _Operation Runespoor_, that's what Dawlish had whispered as he had lain dying. Tonks pocketed her notebook and pen and pulled Ollie into a needed hug. 'Harry will be ok?' she asked 'The healers sorted him out?'

Ollie nodded, hugging her aunt tightly. 'How did you know I was here, where ever here is?' she asked, as she pulled out of the hug and gesturing to the house.

'Gabby followed your father's emergency plan to the last letter' Tonks replied. 'If he is in danger or unable to look after you then take you to Luna, no Luna, me and Remus. If we are not available then you should be taken to the Weasleys '

'Why can't you take me?' Ollie asked

'Ollie it's a full moon tomorrow night, I should be heading to Hogwarts'

'So why this family?' Ollie asked, gesturing to the people who were listening in on her and Tonk's conversation with interest.

'Ollie, this is Molly Weasley' Tonks said slowly, gesturing to the plump woman who was letting her stay 'Harry has known this family longer than anybody else, even Luna.' Ollie still looked at Tonks blankly. 'Ollie this is the Molly you are named after' she said finally.

Realisation finally dawned on Ollie as she looked at the red haired woman closely. Molly gave Ollie a small smile, her heart warming at the knowledge that Harry had named his daughter after her. She gathered up the small girl in a big bone crushing hug, trying to convey that she would be safe and looked after here until her father was better.

Ollie hugged Molly back in return. She didn't know why, it just felt right to be here. After pulling out of the hug, Molly finally decided to take charge. She could see Ollie trying to cover up her yawns. 'It sounds like you've had a very eventful day, why don't you get some sleep now and we'll sort everything out in the morning' she said calmly leading Ollie towards the stairs.

As Molly lead Ollie up the stairs, Tinks slumped into her vacant chair and looked up gratefully when Mr Weasley placed a steaming cup of tea in front of her. She wrapped her hands around it and took a comforting sip.

'What just happened?' Ron asked, trying to take in everything in. 'You're telling me that Harry's back and he probably killed Dawlish?'

Tonks nodded 'he must've had a good reason though' she replied 'it's against Harry's morals to kill in cold blood, if he has to kill, it's always to defend himself, they have to make the first move'

'You mean Harry's killed before?' Hermione asked, going over Tonk's previous statement in her head.

'He hates doing it, but if it is to protect someone he loves, he will do it'

'But how does Gabby know Harry, and what was she doing here?' Fleur asked 'she's meant to be in Paris at the moment modelling Madame Mariposa's new collection'

'I don't know much Fleur' Tonks replied 'you'll have to ask her for yourself. However I do know that Harry taught Gabby for her final years at Beaubatons, I think she might have babysat Ollie sometimes.'

'She said her fiancé Dennis was a photographer, so what were they doing finding Harry, in the middle of the night?' Fleur asked

'What I want to know is how she knew we were working on this case and how she got into Hogwarts' Ron stated, thinking that there was a lot of mysteries surround the blond haired French girl, it as if she was living a double life.

'Gabby's very good at breaking into places' Ollie said coming down the stairs.

'Ollie! I thought Molly had sent you to bed?'

'She's just sorting out the room and sent me down here to get some dreamless sleep potion, apparently I need it'

'I'll get you some' the woman called Audrey said, moving over to a cabinet 'take this' she instructed holding out a purple coloured potion to Ollie, who took it and drank it quickly, her face scrunching up at the odd taste.

'Remus and McGonagall know you are here and Ribbons said she would be dropping your stuff off in the morning' Tonks said to Ollie, giving her a quick hug before pushing her in the direction of the stairs.

A few minutes later Molly came back down the stairs.

'Tucked in and fast asleep' she told Tonks.

'So she's really Harry's daughter' came a voice, which had not been heard for most of the evening.

'Yes' Tonks said in response to Ginny's question.

'But how?' Hermione asked, doing the maths in her head. Ollie, though small for her age, still looked about thirteen, so she must have been born when Harry was sixteen.

'Harry adopted Ollie when she was two years old, he found her in a muggle orphanage and has raised her ever since'

'No mother?' Ginny enquired, wondering if Harry had moved on. She could not believe he was back, after all these years. She was in a state of shock, not only was he back, he had a daughter and she was staying here. She also did not know who they were.

'Her real mother died soon after she was born, so she's never had a proper mother figure' Tonks replied sadly. 'Well, she has got Luna, her godmother but they seem to have fallen out and Luna has gone off on an expedition where no one can contact her. It's quite ironic though since she is named after mothers, yet she has had none'

'One last question' Arthur asked curiously 'Gabby called her Ollie but when you arrived you called her Katarina?'

'Her full name is Katarina Olwen Molly Potter, her birth mother's name, Luna's mother's name and Molly's. When she was younger she decided that Katarina was two much of a mouthful and she found Ollie easier to say, especially when Harry was trying to teach her to speak English since she only spoke French'. With that Tonks drained the last of her tea and stood up, looking at her watch, she needed to get to Hogwarts. 'Thanks so much Molly for doing this' she said as she headed towards the door.

'It's no problem dear' Molly replied 'it's nice to have a Potter in the house again!'

'Just be warned' Tonks remarked as she prepared to disaparate 'Ginny is her favourite quidditch player, she idolises her, I suspect once when she makes the connection she might go a bit mental!'

* * *

><p><strong>So what did you think?<strong>

**You know when you get an idea for a story, you sometimes think up scenes in your head? This was one of the original scenes that made me think up the rest this story. Because I had gone over and over it in my head so many time, I actually found it quite hard to put it on paper, I like to hand write everything first before typing it up, so I hope it's ok.**

**Anyway please read and review!**

**:) x  
><strong>


	16. Chapter 15

Sunlight filtered through the bedroom window, passing over the old quidditch posters and piles of books and hit Ollie, who lying curled up in the bed in the middle of the room. She groaned loudly and rolled over, trying to block out the sunlight, her feet getting caught up in the sheets as she slowly opened her eyes.

It took her over a minute to work out where she was, waking up in an unfamiliar bedroom. She finally realised where she was, she was at the Burrow and she was staying with the Weasleys, who had some connection to her father. Her stomach rumbling, Ollie slowly got out of bed. She was still wearing the clothes she had thrown on yesterday, but since her belongings had not arrived yet, there was nothing she could do. A most wonderful smell wafted up the stairs into the bedroom, grabbing her wand she headed down stairs until she ended up in the kitchen.

'Ah, there you are dear' Mrs Weasley said, looking up from the bacon she was frying. 'Did you have a good night's sleep?'

Ollie nodded, looking around the room curiously. The dishes were washing themselves up by the sink while towards the armchairs at the other side of the kitchen/dining room/living room a pair of knitting needles were hovering in mid air kitting what looked like a pale purple jumper. All this fascinated her. Even though she lived in a magic family, her Dad, when he did the cooking liked to everything by hand and that included washing up, although it was Winky or Kreacher that did most f the cooking and housework.

'What would you like for breakfast?' Mrs Weasley asked, breaking Ollie out of her thoughts. 'I've got bacon or I can make you some eggs or toast or even some kippers?'

'Toast would be great thanks' Ollie replied, overwhelmed at the choice the woman was giving her.

'Oh, your house elf, dropped off some of your things this morning as Arthur was going to work' Mrs Weasley added. 'A curious little thing, obviously young, wearing a bright pink dress and odd socks'

'That's Ribbons' Ollie replied walking over to her trunk. Ribbons had attached herself to Ollie when they had first met. She was Kreacher's cousin's daughter, who her father had found in the kitchens when he had first moved into their home in Italy. Since she was quite young, Ribbons tended to be very hyper and loved tidying things up, which Ollie found quite odd.

'Why don't you take that upstairs, while I make your toast?' Mrs Weasley suggested.

Ollie dragged her heavy trunk, silently cursing the fact that she was not meant to use magic out of school. It made a loud clunking noise as she heaved it up the stairs until she entered her bedroom and swung it onto the bed with a thump. Quickly she opened it smiling at the fact that somehow Ribbons had managed to squeeze all her belongings, including her broomstick, into the trunk. She pulled out a fresh pair of jeans, a top and a warm hoodie before quickly running a brush through her messy black hair and tying it up in a messy bun. Just before she headed back downstairs to have breakfast she grabbed her father's invisibility cloak, which she had placed under her pillow last night and carefully put it at the bottom of her trunk. The healers had found the cloak stuffed in her father's robes when they were examining him and had given it to her to look after.

Hearing Mrs Weasley's summons she ran back down the stairs into the kitchen, where Mrs Weasley placed her breakfast in front of Ollie. She began eating hungrily, spreading some of Mrs Weasley's homemade blackberry jam liberally on the toast.

Just as she finished her first slice another person entered the kitchen. It was a small woman with long red hair, wearing a pair of jeans and a green Holyhead Harpies quidditch shirt.

'Here you are Ginny' Mrs Weasley said, putting bacon butty in front of her daughter, who had sat down opposite Ollie.

Ollie dropped her toast in shock; Ginny Weasley was sitting opposite her. The legendary Ginny Weasley, star chaser of the Holyhead Harpies and England team was right in front of her and Ollie had blackberry jam all round her mouth. How embarrassing!

'Are you alright?' Ginny asked, slightly unnerved that this girl, Harry's daughter was staring at her.

'You're Ginny Weasley?' Ollie asked in awe.

'Yes' Ginny replied casually, eating her butty.

'I can't believe it's you!' Ollie exclaimed.

Ginny looked slightly worried, what had Harry told Ollie? Had he told her about the woman that had spurned his love and broken his heart? 'You've heard of me?' she asked curiously

'Ollie stayed silent, slightly star struck to be in the present of her favourite quidditch player.

Molly watched in amusement. She found it quite ironic that Ginny used to be so shy around Harry because he was Harry Potter and now Harry's daughter was star struck by Ginny. 'Tonks told me that you that you are Ollie's favourite player' she told her daughter, who looked slightly shocked.

'You're absolutely amazing!' Ollie finally exclaimed finding her voice. 'I wish I could fly as well as you, I tried out that move you used in Paris, when you dodged...' she trailed off looking around nervously, wondering if was being slightly too enthusiastic.

'Paris?'

'I managed to persuade Dad to take me to the final of the quidditch world cup in Paris. It was amazing!'

Ginny tried to take in all the information. She could not believe that Harry was at that quidditch match, the match in which England won the world cup for the first time in 72 years and had been the turning point in her career. From that moment on she was known as Ginny Weasley the quidditch player not Ginny from the family of war heroes. At that point she had achieved her dream, she had made a name for herself and she had been flying on the broom Harry gave her all those years ago. It made it even more special.

'Maybe we could fly together sometime?' Ginny suggested eager to get to know Ollie better.

'Really?' Ollie asked, trying to work out if she was dreaming. As Ollie finished off her toast, Bluebell, her beautiful snowy owl flew into the Burrow, landing on the table. She held her leg our patiently, waiting for Ollie to detach the letter from her leg, before wondering over to Ollie's glass of water where she began to drink thirstily.

'Hey' Ollie remarked as she opened the letter. 'Do you want this as well?' she asked tossing an eaten crust at Bluebell who gobbled it down hungrily. Ollie broke the wax seal bearing the Hogwarts crest and began to read. It was from Professor Lupin-Uncle Remus, stating that the headmistress had given her permission to stay at the burrow since it was nearly the Christmas holidays and her father still needed her. He also told her that all the school work she was missing would be sent to her in due course. Remus had finished on a more personal note, wishing Ollie well and telling her that if she needed anything she only needed to ask.

Ollie disappeared up to her room soon after breakfast. Ginny had headed out to go and do some Christmas shopping so Ollie decided to go and sort out all of her things. Ribbons had packed everything so neatly which meant that she did not have a clue where anything was.

Finally after finding the rest of her clothes and her toothbrush she came across her photo album. She opened it carefully placing it across her lap as she sat cross legged on the bed looking at the pictures: The ones of her as a toddler taking her first tentative steps in their home in Italy, pictures of her sitting on her father's lap as he told her a bed time story. Her favourite was the one about the knight and the princess who had been lured into a dark chamber by a dark evil sorcerer.

As Ollie progressed through the album she saw pictures of her younger self playing pranks with Teddy and Millie. There was a picture of all three of them covered in icing at Nandromeda's 60th birthday party. Nandy was a special person in Ollie's life; she was the closest thing Ollie had to a grandmother. She was really Teddy and Millie's Granny but she was could always run to if she needed a hug. However at the moment she had been unwell so Ollie had not seen her in ages.

Ollie turned over to find a picture of her first day at Beaubatons. She was smiling nervously at the camera as she posed in her new pale blue uniform, a blue hat perched jauntily on top of her black curls. She finally found the most recent picture. It was a photo of Ollie and her godmother, Luna sitting on the beach by the sea. Both wore identical smiles as they held their half eaten ice creams up to the camera. The sun reflected off their sun glasses as the wind blew their hair around wildly. The picture Luna laughed and wrapped the arm not holding the ice cream around Ollie, who leant back into her Aunt. Ollie remembered how Luna had placed a kiss on top of her head as she had held her close. It had been a good day. They had dragged her Dad down to the beach and had spent the day playing in the sea. She and Luna were best friends and had a great time. This happened befire Rolf came into their lives and everything had changed.

Ollie closed the photo album sadly placing it under her pillow. The photo made her think how much she wanted to talk to Luna. She was always patient and kind, she also treated Ollie like an equal not like a child. Luna always seemed to know the answers to everything and explained it in her own unique way, whether it was why she had to get up in the morning, to how to do her transfiguration homework, to the mating habits of unicorns or why baby unicorns preferred girls to boys. That's how Luna met Rolf. She had been working on a research paper on magical horses, Thestrals, Hippogriffs, Aethonans and Unicorns, when she had met Rolf at a unicorn reserve in Switzerland. From then on everything had gone down hill. However now her father was in hospital and she had been practically abandoned in this strange house, with people who were very nice but still strangers. She needed a familiar face to talk to.

Hastily she rummaged through her trunk trying to find something to write on. Pulling a piece of old parchment from the depths of her trunk she found a quill and some ink on the desk in the corner of the room and began to write. Several attempts later she had written her let, asking Luna to come back. She wrote Luna's name on the front before putting the quill down.

'Bluebell' she called out. The faithful snowy owl flew down from the top of the house and into the room, where Ollie attached the letter to the owl's leg. She knew that Gabby had been unable to track down and get hold of Luna but she hoped that Bluebell would be up to the job.

'Take this to Aunt Luna' she told the owl 'you have to make sure she gets it'. Bluebell gave Ollie a reassuring nibble on the ear, telling Ollie in her own way that she understood and would do her best before flying out of the window Ollie had opened. She watched as Bluebell became nothing but a speck in the distance.

* * *

><p>Hermione Weasley was not somebody who liked to be kept out of the loop, she liked to know what was going on and in the know. This was something she missed since she resigned from the Ministry of Magic. For this reason she now found herself in her mother-in-law's kitchen helping her make lunch.<p>

Her daughter, Rose, was not with her, she was spending the day at her other grandparents' house. Hermione had finally found her parents on the third attempt. By that time, her parents had been living as Wendell and Monika Wilkins for over five years and had been deeply distressed to discover that their lives had not been real. They were still building up their relationship with Hermione to what it was like before the war. Her parents had been quite angry at the fact she had modified their memories without their permission and they had barely been on speaking terms when they came back to England. However after Rose's difficult birth, Hermione and her parents had begun to rebuild their relationship. Hermione glanced out of the window, deep in thought and noticed a snowy owl flying away from the house. Suddenly she heard the thump thump of someone coming down the stairs. Ollie had obviously been lured down by enticing smell of lunch.

'Your father used to have a snowy owl' She remarked as she chopped up some onions.

Ollie turned around quickly and found the source of the smell.

'We're just making some lunch dear' Molly remarked. 'Hermione here, is going to St Mungo's later for a check up and was wondering if you wanted to go with her, you could visit your father while she goes to her appointment.

And so began Ollie's visits to her father, everyday she was taken by a member of the Weasley family and bit by bit she learnt about her father's life before he found her. Hermione and her husband Ron were her father's best friends when he was at school and they had been on many dangerous and exciting adventures together. Mr and Mrs Weasley had shown her photographs of her father srom when he had stayed at the Burrow during the holidays. One of the Infamous quidditch world cup of 1994, playing quidditch in the paddock in the garden and his 17th birthday party.

She had also visited him with Fleur, Gabby's older sister. From Fleur she had learnt the reason why Gabby kept on saying why she owed Harry her life. She learnt about the Triwizard Tournament and also that Fleur had been the kind lady, who had comforted her during her capture in Egypt. Fleur had kept pestering her about what Gabby actually did, but Ollie knew she had to stay quiet and let Gabby tell her sister.

Ollie had also visited her Dad with George Weasley, who had popped in to the Burrow one day with the plan of taking her away from the school work she was doing under the supervision of his mother to take her to Diagon Alley to see his famous joke shop. She had been really surprised to find out that her Dad had given George and his twin the start up money for their now prospering business. She had had a great day with George, his wife Angelica and their two children, five year old Fred and two year old Roxanne.

They had had a great time, in the flat above the shop telling stories about the pranks they had pulled. Ollie was really impressed by the story of the Weasley twins' rebellion against Umbridge and their flight from Hogwarts, while Angelina had recounted what had happened afterwards. Ollie found it hard to believe that McGonagall actually help Peeves create chaos in the school. In return Ollie had told them about the pranks she had pulled, turning a boy in her class's hair shocking pink when she was at Beaubatons and some of the pranks she had pulled on Teddy or with him. At the end of the day George had taken her to see her dad before taking her back to the Burrow.

Today Ollie was visiting with Ginny. Ginny had to go to St Mungo's for a health check up to make sure she was up to playing quidditch in the new year. As the week had progressed Ollie had slowly overcome her shyness when it came to talking to Ginny. Ginny had taken her flying a couple of times and had been teaching her some new moves which she hoped to tryout in her next quidditch match.

As she had done every day for the past week, Ollie sat by her father's bedside and talked to him. She told him what she had been doing and she hoped that the sound of her voice would bring him back. According to the healers there was nothing physically wrong with him, he was just magically exhausted, which meant he had fallen into another, though this time not life threatening coma.

'Yesterday after George dropped me back at the Burrow, Mrs Weasley, Ginny and I made chocolate chip cookies. It was so much fun, Mrs Weasley let me lick the bowl, and the mixture tasted almost as good as the final products! They were gorgeous; maybe when you wake up you can have one?' Ollie sighed as her father showed no signs of life, it was quite disheartening, she really wanted him to wake up in time for Christmas and her birthday.

'Then today before I came here, Ginny took me out flying; she's trying to get back into shape so she can get back on the Harpies team. I don't know if you know but she was injured during her last match so has been out for a couple of games, she's having her physical examination at the moment to see if she is ready to start training with the team again. Anyway, she's taught me a new dodge which I want to tryout at practise as soon as I get back to school. Did I tell you I got onto the Gryffindor team? Well, it's Teddy's fault really, but I beat a 7th year!' Ollie turned around hearing the door to the private room being open.

'Ollie, visiting hours are nearly over, it's time to go' Ginny said, poking her head around the door. She gasped at the sight of Harry lying on the hospital bed. She had been trying to avoid seeing Harry but it was impossible, her eyes were drawn to him. Her heart began to beat faster as she entered the room, closing the door behind her softly and walked towards the bed. Ginny raised her hand to brush forehead tenderly, her fingers lingering on his scar. He was actually here.

'Hi Harry' she whispered 'long time, no see'

Ollie looked up in alarm as his hand began to move from within her grasp.

'What have you been doing to yourself?' Ginny continued sliding into the chair at the other side of the bed opposite Ollie. 'You were probably being noble, as usual. Saving someone's life or doing something heroic for the wizarding world'

Ollie listened in amazement. No one had really spoken to her father like that before, in such a soft tender way. When Hermione had come with her to see her father, she had reacted in a similar way but had then rushed out the room to find a healer so she could know what exactly was going on. Mrs Weasley had remarked how thin her father looked and stated that he needed feeding up. George had only looked in for a couple of seconds, looking more serious than Ollie had ever seen him, all traces of laughter gone from his face before announcing that he did not do hospitals and that he would pick her up in an hour.

Ginny was now sitting close to Harry whispering things into his ear. Ollie only caught snatches; she heard the words 'lake', 'quidditch match', 'birthday', and 'sorry'. Ollie turned her attention back to her Dad. She could see his eye lids starting to flutter.

'He's waking up!' she exclaimed 'come on Dad, open your eyes!'

Ginny watched as Harry's eyes began to open slowly. She never thought she would see those startling emerald green eyes again. 'Come on Harry' she whispered.

Harry Potter opened his eyes, everything was blurry and he waved his arms around aimlessly trying to find his glasses. He felt someone put them in his hand and he carefully put them on. 'Ollie' he breathed as she saw his daughter sitting next to him, her violet eyes sparkling with happiness.

'Hey Dad' she replied smiling

Harry felt the presence of another person in the room, he turned his head and found himself staring into a pair of eyes he never thought he would look into again. He had not been dreaming when he had heard her voice just before he had woken up, she really was there. 'Ginny'

'Hello Harry' she replied nervously, wondering if he had heard all that she whispered to him.

'Ginny' he repeated, trying to take in the fact that she was here, sitting next to him. She looked more mature than the Ginny he had loved- no that he still loved. After all the years he still loved her. 'I'm sorry too' he whispered 'I'm so so sorry, I was so stupid and I thought I was doing what was best and...'

'Hey shhh' Ginny interrupted placing her finger on Harry's lips silencing him. 'You need to save your strength, you need to get better, Ollie needs her Dad and we need you to come back home' she said reassuringly, as Harry sank back into the hospital pillows. 'We'll have time to talk later' she promised.

'Miss Potter visiting hours are – oh Mr Potter, your awake!' the healer exclaimed as he came through the door.

Ollie practically skipped though the hospital, a huge grin on her face as Ginny led her to the apparation point. She was so happy, her Dad was awake and getting better. The healers were now carrying out all sorts of tests on him though one kind healer had told Ollie that she could not see any reason why her father would not be discharged in a couple of days.

Ginny held on tightly to Ollie's hand as she side-apparated them back to the Burrow. As they entered the kitchen Ollie saw a familiar figure leaning against the table with a snowy owl beside her.

'Aunt Luna' she whispered in disbelief, before running at her godmother. Ollie hugged her tightly breathing in her unique comforting smell. She had missed her so much.

'Cath fach' Luna replied, wrapping her arms around her goddaughter, whom she had not seen in months. 'I'm here now' she whispered stoking Ollie's black curls soothingly.

As Ollie hugged Luna she noticed something, Luna's stomach felt odd, it felt rounder and harder than it was before...she couldn't be? 'Luna what's this?' Ollie asked, placing her hand on Luna's stomach.

'Ollie, I'm pregnant'

* * *

><p><strong>Yay Harry's awake and what did you think of Luna's news? Also so what did you make of this monster chapter? It's the longest one so far! Please please review and let me know what you think! Reviews are amazing and inspire me to write more. In my over all plan there seems to be quite a few chapters left...so reviews will help me to get there.<br>**

**All the best - Cherry :) x  
><strong>

**PS. Cath fach is welsh for kitten  
><strong>


	17. Chapter 16

**Hi! Thanks for all the lovely reviews for the last chapter, it was lovely to read all your comments and it really inspired me to write. I really hope you like this chapter****, please read and review!**

**All ther best and on with the chapter, Cherry :) x**

* * *

><p>'What!'<p>

'Ollie, I'm pregnant' Luna repeated, running her hand over her stomach, a small bump just visible.

'but...no...why are you here?' Ollie asked trying to process her thoughts 'Why aren't you with Rolf?'

Luna looked sadly out of the window 'Bluebell arrived with your letter and when I read it I knew that you needed me more than he did' Luna replied.

Ollie looked at her Godmother curiously, she could sense that Luna was hiding something. 'Dad woke up today' she announced brightly 'and the healers said he might be out in a couple of days'

'That's great news dear' Mrs Weasley said, bustling into the room placing a casserole on the table. 'Luna, will you be staying for dinner?' she asked

'Oh, no Mrs Weasley I'd hate ti impose on you like this and besides I need to get back to the flat and unpack and-'

'Please stay' Ollie begged 'You can't go back to your flat now, you'll be all by yourself and you know that as soon as you land in that house Kreacher will sort out everything for you'

'Come on dear, we haven't seen you in years and Ollie wants you to stay for dinner' Mrs Weasley stated pulling back a chair and pushing Luna down into it before calling out to Arthur, who was out in his workshop to come to the table.

'So what have you been doing?' Ginny asked, making her presence known as she asked her old school friend a question. When she had first seen Luna standing in the kitchen she hardly recognised her. She looked completely different, she had grown up. That was to be expected but to Ginny she did not look like the Luna she used to know. This Luna had hair that was in a short neat blond bob and she was wearing clothes which could only be described as normal. There were no wacky colours, radish earrings or butterbeer cork necklace. She also looked rather pale and withdrawn.

'Oh nothing much' Luna replied, keeping her head down and playing with her food. When she had arrived at the burrow she had stupidly thought that she might not bump into into her old school friend, who she knew would ask awkward questions.

Ollie looked between the two young women, she feel the tension mounting as she tried to concentrate on Mrs Weasley's food. She remembered the picture Professor Longbottom had shown her during her first detention, the photo of Luna Ginny and himself during the war. However it had never really occurred to her at the time that they probably were quite close.

'Nothing much? Then why did you disappear without a trace for eleven years' Ginny asked, finally bursting, asking the questions she had been wanting to ask all those years ago, when she first found out her friend gone. First Harry and disappeared and then Luna had vanished, leaving all of their confused friends behind. 'Didn't you value our friendship?' she asked 'you left without saying goodbye!'

'I'm sorry' Luna replied in a voice Ollie had never heard before, it sounded so empty.

'Sorry! I needed my best friend and you had disappeared, no one knew where you were'

'My father died Ginny. That's what happened' Luna finally exclaimed, putting down her cutlery abd looking at the red head opposite her. 'My father was killed by rouge Death Eaters as he was freeded from Azkaban and no one at the stupid ministry did anything about it! I was so angry. We had just fought in a war to ensure freedom and justice, we had to grow up, we probably did more fighting then most of the ministry and I had just been locked in a dark damp cellar for months on end and now the pathetic ministry decided not to investigate my father's murder. I felt betrayed and there was nothing here left for me'

'So you ran away without telling anyone'

'Ginny, you were all lost in your own grief I found it hard to tell anyone and then an opportunity came to me and I left the country

'Where did you go?'

'France, where I found Ollie'

'You were with Harry?' Ginny asked in shock, they had disappeared around the same time but she never thought they were together.

Luna nodded slowly, trying to work out what Ginny's reaction would be.

'Ok' Ginny said finally, slumping back into her chair. Luna looked at her, wondering what was going on inside the redhead's head.

Ollie continued to follow the conversation curiously trying to work out what was going on between Ginny and her godmother; it was like they were having a silent conversation.

'Nothing really happened between me and Harry' Luna said, relaising what was going through Ginny's mind.

'Really?'

'He's like my brother'

'So where have you been since I last saw you?' Ollie asked as the table returned to an awkward silence.

'You mean since I stormed off after our big fight?'

'Yeah' Ollie replied, hiding her head at the mention of the fight. It was not one of her best hours.

'Hey, it was my fault too cath fach' Luna replied reassuringly 'you were just worried about me...anyway Bluebell found me just outside an Aethonan reserve in Macedonia. I had to find the international porkey points travelling across Europe, but I finally got here.

Harry also asked that question when Luna visited him in St Mungo's the following day. Ollie had declined to visit with her godmother, she had decided to stay at the Borrow and help Mrs Weasley put up all the Christmas decorations. The Christmas holidays had finally started so as per tradition the whole of the Weasley family had descended on the Burrow to turn it into a winter wonderland and Ollie at got caught up in all the excitement.

'Luna, I know you're hiding something' Harry said after Luna told him her story. Today Harry had made a huge improvement and was sitting up in the hospital bed looking much more alive. 'Tell me what's wrong' he said giving her hand a comforting squeeze.

'Harry I'm pregnant'

'And?'

'I'm so scared' she whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

'Why are you crying, shouldn't you be happy? You're starting your own family and I know you'll be a great mother'. Luna continued to cry. 'Hey, tell me what's wrong' Harry said desperately, trying to work out what was wrong with this friend.

'Rolf' Luna chocked out 'he wants nothing to do with the baby'

'What?' Harry said in alarm.

'He used me, Harry' Luna said sadly 'You and Ollie where right, I knew it was too good to be true. He used me to further his own research studies and now he has finished with me. I was so stupid, so willing to believe that he loved me and that I could move on. Now look at me, pregnant and alone.

'You're not alone' Harry said reassuringly. 'I'm here. You helped me so much when Ollie was little so now I can return the favour. Besides we all knew that Rolf was a scum bag and besides don't give up hope it's going to be alright.'

'You think so?' Luna asked hopefully

'I know so' Harry replied smiling. 'By the way, be warned' he added 'Ollie has found out about Dumbledore's Army, so be prepared for some awkward questions'

'How did she find out about it?'

'Apparently Neville showed her a few photos during a detention or something'

'Neville Longbottom-'

'-is her Herbology teacher'

'Shouldn't you be worried that she was in a detention?'

'Nah' Harry replied, 'I'm sure I got into more trouble when I was her age'

'And you know all of this because...'

'When one is unconscious one still hears things' Harry replied as a Healer entered the room.

* * *

><p>'Ollie can you pass me that bauble' Hermione Weasley asked, pointing to the red and gold ornament. Ollie picked it out of the box carefully handed it to the pregnant witch, who in turn handed it to her husband, who passed to his mother, who placed in on the big green Christmas tree. Ollie had been on ornament unwrapping duty all morning, unwrapping various decorations and handing them to the adults who were decorating the house.<p>

'Mummy, look what I made!' three year old Lucy Weasley announced, running into the room waving her paper snowflake in her mother's face.

'It's very pretty' Audrey replied.

'Look Daddy' Lucy then said running towards her father who was busy enchanting Christmas fairies to stay on the tree.

'It looks lovely' Percy replied

'Aunty Ginny said I could stick up on one of the windows in Nana's kitchen'

'Why don't you go and do that?' he suggested as she ran back into the kitchen where Ginny was supervising all the Weasley grandchildren.

Ollie followed Lucy into the kitchen. The normally tidy room was covered with bits of paper, sequins and glitter, as were most of the children. She saw little Rosie and Roxie sitting side by side, having a great time colouring in various Christmas scenes, while at the other end of the table, five year olds, Fred and Louis seemed to be having a great time throwing paper snowballs at each other. Dominique was sitting quietly in the corner making a long sparkly paper chain and standing precariously on some stools, Ollie could see the oldest Weasley grandchildren, Victoire and Molly, sticking up Lucy's roughly cut out snowflake next to their more elaborate ones. Ginny was sitting amongst this organised chaos, looking perfectly happy, watching her nieces and nephews make lots of mess.

'Ollie, have you come to join us?' she asked, looking up and spotting Ollie hovering in the doorway.

'Do you need any help?'

'Nah, I think I've got everything under control' Ginny replied. 'Hey Fred, don't you dare throw that at Ollie' she remarked glaring at her red haired nephew, who had inherited his father's love of causing mischief and was currently aiming a paper ball at Ollie.

'Ollie?' Victoire remarked, stepping down carefully from the stool. 'As in Teddy and Millie's Ollie?'

'I guess' Ollie replied wondering what the blond haired nine year old was getting at.

'I thought that they were making you up'

'Nope, I'm real'

'So you're the Ollie that made the Gryffindor quidditch team? The one Millie thinks flies better than Aunt Ginny'

'um well...' Ollie muttered, looking slightly sheepish, backing out of the room slowly.

'Who flies better than my sister?' Ron asked poking his head around the door to check on his small red haired daughter.

'According to Millie Lupin, Ollie does' Victoire replied, before turning back around to face the window where Lucy handed her some more snowflakes to stick up.

Ginny just chuckled at her niece's antics, she had a soft spot for Teddy Lupin and was annoyed to find out that his imaginary other best friend was real. Ollie stood there looking down at the floor slightly embarrassed. She loved Millie, but she just could not keep her mouth shut!

'Daddy' Rose squealed, launching herself at her father, giving him a sticky glittery hug. 'Look at my picture' she demanded imperiously, thrusting the piece of paper at him.

'It's really good Rosie' Ron said, peering at the picture she had drawn. 'What is it?' he asked with his usual display of lack of tact.

'That's you and me and that's Mummy' Rosie replied, pointing to the blobs on the page.

'Of course it is!' Ron replied 'now why don't you keep this drawing a secret and you can give it to Mummy for Christmas?'

'Ok' the two year old replied. 'Can you tell me a story?' she asked

'I would love to Rosie, but Grandad Weasley needs my help, I'll tell you a special one tonight'

Rose gave her father an annoyed glare, sticking out her bottom lip.

'I can tell you a story, if you want' Ollie offered. Ron shot Ollie a grateful look before edging out of the kitchen.

'Can you tell me a story as well' Roxie begged, pulling on Ollie's sleeve ad making her sit next to her, with Rose on the other side.

'Well, once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess who was loved by all in the kingdom' Ollie began, telling the story she had been told many times as a child, by her father and godmother. 'One day an evil sorcerer captured the princess and took her from her home and put her into an enchanted sleep in a dark chamber in his castle. Her family were distraught and...'

The noisy kitchen began to quieten as Ollie told the story. The other children stopped what they were doing and started to listen to Ollie's tale. Ginny also listened in amazement as did the rest of the adults as Mrs Weasley turned off the radio, which had been belting out Celestina Warbeck's greatest hits, to listen to the story.

'It's the Chamber of Secrets' Ron whispered to his wife, who promptly told him to be quiet.

'...the knight dropped his sword and ran towards the princess, who was lying on the damp floor appearing dead' Ollie continued; now nearing the end of her story, completely unaware as to how big her audience had grown.

'She's not dead?' Roxie asked in alarm, completely engrossed in the story

'No, but nearly' Ollie replied as she continued with the story. 'Though the knight had bravely defeated the sorcerer's giant snake, the dark sorcerer was still draining the life out of the princess. The knight walked bravely towards the sorcerer picking up his sword and attacked him. The evil Sorcerer was so surprised by the ferocious nature of the attack that the knight was able to mortally wound him.

'But how was the knight able to get through the evil sorcerer's magic shield, when he did not have magic?' the observant Dominique asked.

'He loved the Princess' Ollie replied 'and that's a type of magic'

'Oh that's so romantic!' Victoire sighed

'Anyway as the sorcerer died the enchantment lifted off the princess who woke up, wondering where she was. The knight rushed over to her and they looked deeply into each other's eyes and –'

'They kissed' Lucy interrupted

'no, that's the end' Ollie replied

'What? They just looked into each other's eyes; didn't they live happily ever after?' Molly asked

'I don't know' Ollie replied truthfully

'So it's a real story?' Rose asked

'I'm not quite sure, it was my favourite story when I was little, I made my Dad and Aunt Luna tell it to me over and over again. Dad told me the basic story and then Luna embellished it slightly but she never told me what happened to the knight and the princess in the ends and Dad never said if was real or not'

'What did I never say?' came the voice of Harry Potter who was standing in the hallway of the Burrow. Luna stood next to him smiling at the expression on her goddaughter's face.

'Papa!' Ollie shouted standing up and flinging herself into her father's arms, as the rest of the Weasley family came to see what was happening.

'Harry?'

'Luna?'

'Harry?'


	18. Chapter 17

Harry?'

'Luna?'

'um hello' Harry said nervously looking at all the red heads who had gathered in the hallway. When Luna said she was taking him to the Burrow had had not anticipated meeting the entire Weasley family there.

'Dad, what are you doing here?' Ollie asked, finally releasing her father from the tight hug. 'I thought that the healers would be keeping you in for a couple more days'

'The healers decided that he was well enough to come home, as long as he gets plenty of rest' Luna replied giving Harry a stern look.

'Luna is that you?' Hermione asked, recognising Luna's distinctive voice after so many years.

'Hi Hermione' Luna replied

'Harry!' Mrs Weasley exclaimed, finally getting over the shock of his appearance at in Burrow and bustling towards him. She knocked both Ollie and Luna out of the way as she wrapped him in a long overdue hug.

'Mrs Weasley' Harry replied returning the hug. 'Thank you for looking after Ollie'

'It's no problem dear' Mrs Weasley replied 'She's been no trouble. What have they been feeding you in that hospital?' she added, glancing at his lean form.

Harry just laughed, glancing around the Burrow it felt as if nothing had changed, even though he knew this not to be true. He had run away from England and hadn't spoken to them in over a decade. Even though the house felt as worm and friendly as it had been before the war, he knew things were not the same.

'Mummy, who's that strange man, Grandma was hugging?' Rose asked, tugging on her mother's sleeve.

Harry slowly approached the small two year old 'Rose, my name is Harry Potter, I'm an old friend of your Mum's'

'You know my name, have we met before?'

'We have' he replied, to the amazement of the Weasleys apart from Ron, who remembered what Tonks had told him 'though you probably won't remember, since you were only a couple of minutes old. Everyone was visiting your Mum because you had given her such a hard time, so I snuck in to visit you. You were absolutely tiny with shocking red hair'

'Harry, you were there?' Hermione asked

'Who else do you think would put a toy hippogriff into Rose's cot?'

'Harry' Hermione repeated, advancing towards him. Harry held his arms up expecting to give her a hug. He was surprised to find that he wacked hard on the arm. 'What do you think you were doing disappearing like that?' she shrieked. 'We were all so worried, we had just got back from Australia to find that our best friend had gone missing and no one knew where you were. You left no note NOTHING!'

Ron edged forward and wrapped his arms around his wife, before she could strike is newly returned best friend again and tried to calm her down. Slowly Hermione began to relax though she kept on shooting Harry annoyed looks.

'Why don't we move somewhere less crowded?' Mr Weasley suggested slowly ushering everyone from the cramped hallway into the newly decorated sitting room. Ollie and Harry came in last as she held his hand as he made his way slowly into the room and sat down with Ollie and Luna either side of him on the sofa in the corner of the room. Harry looked at the Weasley family who were gazing at him eagerly.

'Why did you leave?' Ginny asked finally breaking the awkward silence which had fallen.

'You said that you hated me' Harry replied simply, before elaborating 'I had had enough. After the battle my life seemed to spiral out of control. I could not go out in public unless I wanted the press or autograph hounds descending on me. I could not look at any of my friends without feeling guilty for what I had put them through, I felt awful'

'We never blamed you, Harry' Mrs Weasley said kindly as her daughter looked down guiltily, remembering the hurtful words she had spoken to Harry.

'I was drowning in a pool of self loathing' Harry said as Ollie snuggled into her Dad's shoulder. Harry then stopped wondering how to continue. He knew he would probably have to explain how he came to adopt Ollie, but he knew he had no right to reveal her true heritage unless she wanted it to be known.

'Harry helped me when I was grieving for my father' Luna continued, knowing the dilemma Harry was facing. 'I told him of my plan to take a break and go exploring and travelling and invited him along' she lied.

'The idea appealed to me' Harry said continuing the story, it was not really a proper lie because it contain bits of the truth. 'I felt free and I was amazing to go places and not to be recognised. I never thought I would be away for this long, I guess deep down I was afraid of coming back and returning to my past' he finished.

Ron looked at Harry suspiciously. It didn't take a genius to realise that Harry was missing out some bits of information out as to why he had stayed away so long, especially when he remembered what Tonks had told him in the ministry of magic's records room.

'How come you adopted Ollie?' Mrs Weasley asked curiously.

'Well Luna and I were passing through southern France where we came across an orphanage and inside we found Ollie'

'And?'

'That's it, isn't it Dad?' Ollie said shortly. She liked the Weasleys a lot but she did not fully trust them with her secret. She knew that they probably wouldn't react in a bad way but she did not want to take that risk. She liked being known as a Potter not as a _Black. _'You said you detected a magical presence inside the orphanage run by nuns and ...'

'And upon investigating I found a toddler with wild black curls and bright violet eyes, who spoke in lisping baby French and not a word of English.' Harry said, finishing his daughter's sentence.

'Mr Potter' Dominique said shyly 'Ollie was telling us a story about a Princess and a knight, just before you arrived, is it a true story and did they live happily ever after?'

Harry was slightly taken aback by the seven year olds question. He was not expecting that! 'Wow you ask hard questions just like your Aunt Gabrielle!' he remarked, whilst thinking about his answer. 'I guess you could say it was based on real events' he said finally. 'Knowing Ollie, she probably gave you Luna's romantic embellished version.'

'So what really happened to the knight and the Princess?'

'They had an argument on the way back to the princess' castle' Harry said looking anywhere but at Ginny, who was listening intently to what Harry was saying. 'They parted ways as the princess entered the castle to be greeted by her family and the knight rode off with one last look at the princess as he galloped off to have more stupid adventures'

'Did he still love the princess?' Victoire, the young hopeless romantic asked.

'I think so' Harry replied quietly

'And did she love him?'

'I don't know'

* * *

><p>'Ollie can you pass me the salad?' Ginny asked, a short time later as everyone sat around the enlarged dining room table having lunch. Ollie passed the bowl before looking at her father who was looking slightly alarmed at the amount of food Mrs Weasley was piling onto his plate.<p>

'So what's going to happen now?' She asked her father 'are you going to go away again?'

'No' Harry replied tiredly 'I don't think so'

'So does this mean I have to go back to Beaubatons?'

'Do you want to?' Harry replied, curious to see what she thought of his old school. He had no problem with Beaubatons, he'd taught there for a couple of years, but it did not have the same atmosphere as Hogwarts, it was tame.

Ollie thought for a moment. As much as she loved learning at Beaubatons, she had grown to love Hogwarts. 'No I like Hogwarts' she replied.

'So Harry, where will you be staying?' Mrs Weasley asked curiously

'Probably Grimmauld Place, since the healers said that I am still too unwell to travel' Harry replied

'You can't go back to that drafty old house!' she exclaimed remembering what it had been like to live in when they had used it as headquarters.

'Oh no Mrs Weasley, it's not that bad!' Ollie said, joining in the conversation 'We renovated it years ago and turned it into three cosy flats, with rooms for the elves as well'

'Well, I think it would be better if you stayed here' Mrs Weasley muttered as she placed another load of potatoes onto Harry's plate. Soon they all finished and as they helped clean up the door bell rang.

'I'll get that!' Victorie offered eager to get out of helping with the drying up. 'Tante Gabrielle' she shrieked, catching sight of her mother's blond haired younger sister.

'Gabrielle?' Fleur said, as she followed her daughter to the front door and opening it.

'Bonjour Fleur' Gabby said as she entered the warm Burrow and gave her sister a hug.

'Who is it?' Mrs Weasley called out from the kitchen.

'Hi Molly' Gabby replied leaning on the doorframe at the entrance to the kitchen, waving. ' Hi Harry' she said seeing the black haired man amongst the sea of red.

'Gabrielle' he replied walking slowly towards her and giving her a hug 'thank you so much for looking after Ollie' he said.

'It's nothing' she replied, smoothing her business suit nervously as she glanced around the room.

'What is it?' Harry asked, knowing that Gabby would not be here unless she had a good reason.

'I got notified that you had been released from St Mungo's' she replied 'I was sent here by the IDA to tell you not to tell them anything'

'Who?'

'The auror department' she whispered 'for whatever reason Harry, you killed the Head of department and they know about it'

'Damn!' Harry replied. 'You know what this means?' he asked as the rest of the occupants in the kitchen looked at the pair curiously, wondering what they were saying.

Gabby nodded 'I know'

'And are you ok with the consequences?' Harry asked the young woman. 'If this comes out not only I will be decommissioned but so will you and Dennis'

'And I will be glad because the organisation and people who killed my parents would be brought to justice' Gabby replied. 'Dennis and I can be a normal couple, no more secrets. We can get married, Dennis can start his photography business and I can have a family.'

'Ok, wait a minute, what is going on?' Bill, her brother-in-law asked, catching snippets of their conversation. 'What do you do?'

Gabby glanced at both Harry and Luna nervously before clearing her throat. 'Before I say anything, you'd better get comfortable' she suggested, gesturing for them to move towards the sitting room. 'I guess I haven't been completely truthful with you' Gabby stated once everyone had got themselves settled in the room.

'You're not a model in Paris?' Fleur asked, hurt at the fact that her sister had been keeping secrets.

'No' Gabby 'that's my cover, I'm really an agent at the IDA'

'The what?'

'The International Defence Association' Harry supplied, 'an organisation intent on taking down dark wizards and witches who threaten the wizarding world.

'A secret organisation?'

'Mainly, since we have to be undercover most of the time'

'So how did you get involved with this Gabrielle?' Fleur asked

'I recruited her' Harry answered as gabby sat looking down at her hands unable to talk. 'It was after the death of your parents and your capture in Egypt...'

'...Professeur Potter, as he was at the time, asked me whether I wanted to join. I didn't know what I want I wanted to do with my life after I left school. I had felt so helpless staying here in England while you had been captured by a dark wizard in Egypt, especially since it was so soon after Maman and Papa's deaths. Harry explained what the IDA stood for and what they had done in Egypt so as I graduated I joined'

'Gabrielle! It sounds too dangerous. I saw them in action in Egypt and by the sounds of it, Harry, you were in the thick of it. The duelling was nothing like anything I had seen before!'

'Fleur, that's not my job!' Gabby said exasperatedly, slightly annoyed by her sister's worrying. She was glad that she no longer needed to lie to her sister, since all the secrets had started to take its toll on her as she was always busy and had to keep thinking up reasons as to why she could not visit more often. 'As soon as I joined I knew it was the best decision I have ever made' she said, continuing with her story. 'I was surrounded by people who all had the same goal, we all had been affected in some way by dark witches or wizards and we wanted to protect the magical world so none of these things would happen again. One of these people was Dennis.'

'Dennis, as in your fiancé? But Fleur said he was a photographer?' Bill asked his sister-in-law.

'Harry introduced us. Dennis' brother, Colin, had been killed by Death Eaters at the battle of Hogwarts. Harry assigned us together on a case, which was the beginning of a very successful partnership.

'Gabby and Dennis are the best people in the business if you need information' Harry stated. 'They're the best of the best'

'So what do you actually do?' Mr Weasley asked curiously.

'Gabby's great at breaking into places' Ollie commented.

'Please don't tell me that you were the one who broke into Gringotts and The Ministry' Bill said weakly, putting all the pieces together.

'And the Bulgarian Embassy in Paris, the head quarters of the Daily Prophet, Hogwarts...'

'But how?' Fleur asked, still amazed at the fact that her little sister had managed to break into Gringotts.

'That would be my fault again' Harry said looking sheepishly at the two bank employees. 'When we broke into Gringotts during the war, we spent ages pouring over maps of the layout of the bank drawn by Griphook. I remembered most of it including all the possible entrances and exits and I showed Gabby how to find and get into the bank through the secret staff entrance.'

'But why?' Ron asked, eager to find out why they had broken into Gingotts since he had been on the original case and had found nothing.

'For information relating to an ongoing investigation which I can't reveal' Gabby stated shortly.

Finally Fleur lost it, taking in everything she had heard. 'How could you!' she shouted. 'How could you keep this all a secret, I'm your sister!'

'I'm sorry' Gabby replied, tears forming in her eyes 'I was not authorised to tell you'. She stood up quickly, wiping away the stray tears, straightened her jacket and tucked a stray stand of blond hair behind her ear. 'Look after your father' she said to Ollie giving her a quick hug.

'You're going?' Dominique asked as she watched her aunt prepare to leave.

'I'm needed in Geneva' Gabby whispered 'but I'll be back' she promised before calling for Winky.

* * *

><p>'Well that was interesting' Ron commented as he shoved a forkful of food into his mouth. All the rest of his siblings had left, apart from Ginny, so it was just his family that had stayed behind for dinner. He was sitting with Hermione and Ginny at one end of the table while Ollie, Harry and Luna sat the other with his parents sitting in the middle. Only the scrapping of cutlery against the plates could be heard as they all ate the meal in silence. No one knew what to say after the afternoon's revelations.<p>

Ron had to admit he was slightly shocked to discover that it was little Gabrielle Delacour who was the person who had broken into Gringotts and the Auror department. It was very impressive but Ron still wanted to know why she had done it. He was also shocked to see Harry. He still looked like the Harry he had known growing up but now he looked more mature and serious. He noticed that Harry and Ginny kept looking at each other, when the other person was not looking. He found it quite amusing however, he did not want his little sister to get hurt again, but he knew that she was now old enough to look after herself. Suddenly there was a loud knocking on the door.

'Why does everything happen when we are eating?' Ron remarked as Mrs Weasley stood up to go and see who it was. There was some loud muttering before whoever it was, was led into the house

'McIrish, Johnson?' what are you doing here? 'Ron asked as the two aurors entered the room.

'Tonks, what is the meaning of this?' Hermione added, as the pink haired auror walked into the room followed by Mrs Weasley. She gave Harry an apologetic look as McIrish, clearly in charge of this operation unrolled a piece of parchment.

'Harry James Potter, by the orders of the Minister of Magic, you are hereby charged with the manslaughter John Dawlish, head of the auror department...'

* * *

><p><em>So this was the big reveal chapter and it was incredibly hard to write! I sat sating at a blank piece of paper willing myself to write and then when I typed it out the computer I was faced with a blank screen as I tied to edit all my scribblings. It was one of those chapters that you have all planned out in your head and you can envision it in your mind but you just cannot put it into words. My friends, who did not know that I was doing, thought I was a bit weird the week I wrote this, when I spent most of my free time with my ipod my ears staring at my notebook! <em>

_Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter, all the lovely reviews really haelp me keep going with this story, last week they _got me out of _a HUGE writers block I was having with a future chapter so I ould love some reviews for this chapter *smiles sweetly and crosses fingers*_

_All the best and the next chapter will be up next week!_

_Cherry :) x_


	19. Chapter 18

The room erupted in protest, as McIrish continued to read, undeterred by the noise, from the roll of parchment

'...you will now be taken to Azkaban while you will await trial'

'What!' Ollie shrieked, hearing what the Auror was saying over the noise. 'Let me see that' she said snatching the document out of the Auror's grasp and scanning it quickly, noticeing the Minister's elaborate loopy signature in the bottom right hand corner. It was real. 'You can't take my Dad away!'

'I'm sorry Ollie, but they can' Tonks stated sated sadly, clearly hating the position she had been put in.

'Don't worry Tonks, I understand' Harry replied standing up.

'No it's not right' Ollie protested, trying to remember what Susan and Gabby had told her to say in an emergency. 'It's against the law to take my father to Azkaban' she stated firmly, stepping between her father and the aurors with her arms folded.

'I'm afraid I am a fully qualified Auror and I know the laws of this country' McIrish said crossly.

'Then you will know that it is illegal to put a person imprison without a trial' Ollie said confidently 'it was made illegal when it was discovered that Sirius Black was put into Azkaban for a crime he did not commit. Which brings me to my second point, if you wished to question my father, you would have to take him to the Ministry and put him in a cell there. According to your laws you cannot do this as he has only been released from St Mungo's today and his condition means that he needs to rest.'

'His condition?' the sceptical Auror asked

'My father has been subjected to and survived the killing curse twice and the cruciartus curse many times. As a result of this he has a weak heart and he has just been release from St Mungo's where he nearly died as a result of his condition. So you can see this means he would not be able to come with you under the reforms Minister Shacklebolt past just after the war'

As Ollie was talking, Luna fished into her many pockets and handed to Johnson, the junior Auror, all of Harry's medical records which the healers had given her.

'The little girl is right' he told his superior, after he had flicked through the document. McIrish looked livid whilst Tonks looked relieved.

'If what your daughter says is true, I guess we'll have to put you under house arrest until the trail' McIrish said grudgingly, really annoyed that he had been outsmarted by a teenage girl. He did not want to report back his failure to the Minister. 'You will have to stay in this country and in a house which not protected by charms like the fidelius charm, so we can keep an eye on you'

Ollie and Harry exchanged alarmed looks. What were they going to do? Their main home was in Italy and both Grimmauld Place and Potter House in Somerset were under the protection of a number of charms including the fidelius charm, with Harry being the secret keeper and he was not going to tell the Ministry.

'Is there a problem Mr Potter?' McIrish asked, smirking slightly. He suspected that Harry probably had a house that was protected by all sorts of protective charms and so he would have to be taken to the Ministry, despite his annoy daughter's protests.

'Harry will be staying here' Ginny said, seeing the exchange of worried glances that were going on between the farther and daughter. All eyes now turned towards the redhair who was sitting in the corner.

'Are you sure?' Harry asked, stunned by her statement and thinking how awkward it could be if she was not entirely happy.

'Of course' she replied smiling and everyone's shocked expressions. 'Harry's staying here, isn't he?' asked turning to her mother.

'Of course he is' Molly replied hurriedly 'we couldn't have him going to the ministry in his condition'

'Will that be all?' Ollie asked, smirking slightly at the two frustrated Aurors while Tonks watched in amusement, she could see some of the Black genes coming through in Ollie.

'Yes' McIrish replied shortly. 'You are expected to stay within the boundaries of this house and its grounds until your trial, which we shall owl you about in the near future' and with that he turned sharply on his heels and marched out of the house with Johnson scuttling after him. Tonks stayed behind to catch up with Harry and Ollie.

As the evening wore on Hermione, Ron and little Rose went back to their home and Luna went back to her flat. One by one the other residents at the Burrow drifted upstairs leaving just Harry and Ginny behind downstairs.

'Thank you for doing that' Harry said as they were left alone.

'It was no problem' Ginny replied, walking over to sit next to him 'we couldn't see you go and spend Christmas at the Ministry it who've made both you and Ollie miserable and besides I could not let that happen to my knight' she whispered.

The fire crackled as sparks flew up the chimney. Wordlessly Harry and Ginny moved closer together, noses practically touching. Harry could not take it anymore, he had missed her so much. Gently after so many long years he placed his lips upon hers.

Ginny was in shock, was Harry kissing her?' Slowly she responded, it felt so good to be back in his arms, she slotted into them perfectly. The kiss was not as fiery and passionate like their first kiss in the Gryffindor common room or like his seventeenth birthday kiss in her bedroom; it was slow, gentle and loving. When they finally broke apart for air, Ginny snuggled into Harry's arms, he face pressing against his chest. She could feel the rise and fall of his chest and she could hear his heart beating steadily within it. To think that not a day ago he had been lying in hospital was horrible; yet hear she was lying contentedly in his arms on the sofa, something she only could dream about.

'I'm sorry about that' Harry whispered in the darkness 'I just couldn't help it and...'

'Shhh' Ginny interrupted 'it doesn't matter, not at the moment'

And so that was how Mr and Mrs Weasley and a surprised Ollie found them in the morning, sleeping peacefully together on the sofa. It was as if the years had just been erased.

'I've never seen Dad sleep so peacefully' Ollie whispered as they tiptoed out of the room, trying not to disturb the sleeping pair.

* * *

><p>Ollie observed Ginny and her father getting closer over the next couple of days. It felt as if she was intruding moment when Ginny had given Harry a hug as she had pulled out a broom from the Weasley's broom shed. According to Ginny it was the broom her father had given her on her seventeenth birthday and had enabled her to fulfil her dreams and become a professional quidditch player.<p>

The snow had started to fall as it neared Christmas. Various members of the Weasley family had popped in and out of the Borrow. Fleur had taken Ollie Christmas shopping whilst Ron and Hermione had, who was now nearing her due date, came in nearly every other day to see Harry. Ollie thought that there frequent appearances where a result of their fear that her father was just going to disappear again.

As Ollie watched her Dad help Ginny make mince pies she wondered what the history between the pair was. Her father had never shown any signs of recognition when she had talked about her, yet here they were, interacting with each other like they had known each other forever. Who was Ginny Weasley to her Dad?

This was the question she pondered as followed Luna up a steep hill, heading towards her godmother's old childhood home. Luna had come to visit and Ollie knew that she should probably give her Dad and Ginny some space, so she had tagged along on Luna's pilgrimage to her childhood home.

A dark oddly shaped ruin stood in stark contrast to the white thin layer of snow which surrounded it. As they neared the derelict building, Ollie noticed her Godmother's pace slow down as she took in the sight of her once happy home.

'Pick your own Dirigible plums' Ollie read, picking up the sign which was lying on the ground. She handed it to Luna who placed carefully next to what looked like a dead bush outside the house.

Her father had once told her that Luna's home had been destroyed during the war and that was why Luna had lived with them for so long. Luna walked up the old rotting steps, which led up the front door and carefully pushed it open. The old wooden door fell off its hinges and landed with a thump on the floor. Ollie looked inside the house. It was open to all the elements, with no roof and the upstairs rooms seemed to have fallen down. There were no pieces of furniture; it was just empty with vines and other types of foliage beginning to cover the house.

'I wanted to see if I could repair it easily' Luna said as they left the crumbling ruin behind 'but it looks like I'll have to tear it all down and build a new house from scratch instead'

'Why?' Ollie asked, as she followed Luna back towards the Burrow.

'Ollie, your father has been extremely kind to me over the years, letting me stay with him and letting me have the top flat in Grimmauld Place rent free. Bt now I need the space, a bigger place to raise this child' she rubbed her stomach thoughtfully 'I had such a happy childhood here'

Ollie looked horrified at the thought of her Godmother moving away. With the exception of their big fight they had always been close and Luna had always been nearby.

'Kitten, times are changing' Luna stated 'whether it's for the best or not, your Dad is moving on in his life and so am I'

'What's going on between him and Ginny?' Ollie asked. 'I've never seen Dad so happy and carefree with anyone as he has been with Ginny in the last couple of days. There is a spark in his eyes that I have never seen before.

'Um...well' Luna struggled to explain what the relationship between Ginny and Harry was.

'Were Dad and Ginny friends before the war?'

Luna nodded

'Close friends?'

Again Luna nodded

'Best friends?'

'Sort of' Luna replied.

Then realization hit Ollie. 'You don't mean she's the one!' she exclaimed 'the one Dad has loved all these years and the reason he has not found anyone else?'

'Yes' Luna replied as they neared the Burrow 'though it's not quite as simple as that' and she proceeded to tell Ollie the story of Harry and Ginny's relationship.

* * *

><p>'So why has Luna taken Ollie?' Ginny asked<p>

'To show Ollie, her childhood home' Harry replied. 'I think she wants to see if she can fix it up for her and the baby'

'Yours?' Ginny asked, her heart pounding as they walked towards the quidditch paddock. She had spent quite a bit of time in the paddock flying since she was determined to get back on the starting team at the Harpies once the winter break was over. Harry had decided to come out and watch Ginny and she realized that this was the first time she and Harry had been alone together since that night.

'No!' Harry cried 'no, no, no, not me and Luna! I mean she's a lovely person but she's not my type' and he glanced at Ginny quickly.

'I'm sorry, it's just that you seem so close...' Ginny replied, now embarrassed by her assumption.

'Luna and I were only meant to be friends' Harry replied quickly 'she's like my sister'

'So who's the father?'

'A scumbag called Rolf Scaramander' Harry replied through gritted teeth, as he thought about the horrible man who had used and now abandoned Luna.

'Oh' Ginny said, sensing that it was a touchy subject. They continued to walk towards the paddock; Harry's slow pace meant that it was actually taking them quite a long time. 'Harry?' she asked suddenly as they entered the field, which as the home for the Weasley's quidditch games 'what's going on between us?'

'I don't know' he replied, shocked by her question.

'I mean after what happened on the first night and the fact that we haven't really talked much about what happened after the war and now you have Ollie to think about...'

'Why don't we just take it slowly? Harry suggested hopefully, brushing a stray tendril of flaming hair out of her face as he wrapped his arms around her and breathed in her flowery scent, waiting for her to push him away. To his delight she didn't. 'We could get to know each other again, I've changed a lot since Hogwarts and I know you have as well, we could try being friends again?'

'Do friends do this?' she whispered mischievously, standing on her tiptoes and giving him a kiss.

'I suppose they could do' he replied, blushing slightly.

'What are we going to tell Ollie' Ginny asked, spotting Harry's daughter on top of the hill in the distance, walking back towards the Burrow with Luna.

'Why don't we keep it to ourselves for the moment and see what happens before we tell anyone' Harry suggested. 'I've only just got out of hospital and I don't really want to be sent back there as a result of the injuries caused by five angry Weasley brothers!'

'So she knows nothing about us?'

'No' Harry replied 'though I bet she's managed to get some information out of Luna!'

* * *

><p><strong>Hello Cherry here!<strong>

**A massive thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter and to everyone who has alerted or added this story to their favourites, it's nice to know that there are people out there enjoying this story! Happy December 1st and next chapter we will be getting more Christmassy**

**As always, PLEASE review and all best **

**~Cherry :) x  
><strong>


	20. Chapter 19

Soon the light dusting of snow had turned into a deep think blanket which covered the landscape, signalling that Christmas had arrived. Luna had shrunk the old piano from Grimmauld place and had brought it round to the Burrow so Ollie had spent many hours bashing Christmas carol and songs on it, filling the house with festive cheer.

'It's so much better than normal' Ginny had commented as Ollie played God rest ye merry Hippogriffs. 'Mum normally drives us all mad by playing Celestina Warbeck's greatest hits on repeat!' From her place at the piano, Ollie cringed. She had heard some of the witch's music and it was awful.

On Christmas morning, Ollie woke up, wrapped herself in her dressing gown before creeping down the stairs until she reached the room her father was staying in. 'Joyeux Noël Papa' she said as she jumped on top of her father, who up until that moment had been sleeping quite peacefully.

'Oof' came Harry's voice from within the duvet as he was awoken from his dreams. Groggily he reached out to find his glasses; putting them on his face he slowly opened his eyes to see who had interrupted his sleep. There was Ollie sitting at the end of the bed, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

'Joyeux Noël' she repeated, bouncing up and down on the bed.

'Come here' Harry replied sleepily, holding his arms out 'it's far too early to be up'

Ollie looked down at her watch. In her excitement she had not realised that it was only quarter to six in the morning. Slowly she snuggled into her father's arms like she had done when she was younger and fell asleep.

* * *

><p>'And this one is for you' Mrs Weasley announced, handing Ollie a squishy brightly wrapped present. The whole of the Weasley family, who had arrived at the Burrow early in the morning, were now all gathered around the big Christmas tree. George, Ron and Harry were laughing as they told Fred and Louis the story about the 'angel' on top of the tree. Both Ollie and Harry unwrapped the presents Mrs Weasley had just given them.<p>

'A Weasley jumper!' Harry exclaimed, pulling the emerald knitted jumper free from the wrapping paper and pulling it over his head. 'Thank you Mrs Weasley'

'Thank you Mrs Weasley' Ollie chorused, copying her father and pulling the purple jumper over her head causing her messy curls to bounce wildly.

'No problem dears' Mrs Weasley answered as she unwrapped a present from Percy.

'This ones from me and Luna' Harry said placing and oddly shaped parcel on Ollie's lap.

Curious, Ollie untied the bow before tearing away the wrapping paper to reveal her present. 'A new pair of chaser gloves!' she shrieked in surprise. 'Thank you, thank you, thank you!' she cried giving her Dad a quick hug before racing over to her Godmother in the corner. Luna was sitting in an armchair in the corner, wearing the light blue jumper Mrs Weasley had knitted fir her and was watching the scene in front of her. On the floor in amongst the sea of scraps of wrapping paper, tinsel and ribbon, most of the children were unwrapping their presents. Every so often, shrieks of delight rippled out of their mouths as they discovered their gifts. Luna watched in amusement as little Roxie seemed more interested in playing with all the sparkly bits of paper than her presents. Suddenly Ollie came hurtling towards her.

'Thank you for the gloves' Ollie said giving her Godmother a hug.

As his daughter ran over to Luna, Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a small present. Most of the adults were too preoccupied watching the children open their presents, so Harry was able to slip the present onto Ginny's lap. However Mrs Weasley saw this, as she looked up from helping her namesake untie a particularly tight bow, and smiled to herself.

Ginny opened the present Harry had given her very carefully to reveal a simple tear drop necklace.

'Oh, it's beautiful she whispered, leaning forward and kissing Harry on the cheek, an action which did not go unnoticed by Ollie.

Ollie watched as her Dad clasped the necklace she and Luna had chosen, since her Dad was not. To be honest she did not know what to make of her father and Ginny's relationship. She had been slightly shocked to discover the truth about the Chamber of Secrets from Luna and to hear what happened before during and after the war. She felt annoyed at her Dad for breaking up with Ginny in the first placed but she also felt angry at Ginny for saying all those hurtful things to her Dad after the war.

The morning continued at a leisurely pace as all the presents were being handed out. Hermione on spotting the old piano in the corner persuaded Ollie to play for all of them. Ollie was glad to do something, she felt almost like an outsider intruding on a close knit family occasion and it was really weird to see her Dad interacting with Ginny.

'Look Ollie' came Victoire's excited voice 'the last present is addressed to you'

'Who's it from?' Ollie asked over the top of the muggle classic _I'm dreaming of a white Christmas._

'It doesn't say'

Ollie stopped playing in alarm. 'Put it down and step back Victorie' she warned the nine year old girl as she stood up from the piano to look at the neatly wrapped unassuming present. 'DUCK!' she screamed as the present, which had been dropped on the ground as Victoire ran over to her mother, began to rock backwards and forwards. Suddenly the lid flew off the top of the box and bright green gung shot out, flying around the room, covering every available surface with the sticky substance.

'Protego!' Ollie said, shielding herself and the surrounding area from the oncoming slime. She watched as Ron, Ginny, Luna and her Dad also whipped out their wands and cast shield charms to protect the whole family from the gung.

'What on earth happened in here?' Mrs Weasley shrieked as she came back from checking on the turkey to find the entire room and all its contents covered in lime green glittery slime. 'George if this is one of your products...'

'Blame Teddy Lupin' Ollie muttered as she began to clean the room with the majority of the adults beginning to join her.

'I'd like to apologise for my Godson's immature prank' Harry said apologetically as they finished cleaning the Christmas tree which had been splattered. The green goo had been dripping down the branches and ornaments. 'He was just getting Ollie back for the prank she pulled on him last Christmas, where she might have turned all his presents, including his new broom, bright fluorescent pink.'

Apart from Teddy's prank, Ollie had done quite well on the present front. Apart from the Chasers gloves and jumper she had received a broom servicing kit and some Weasley's Wizard's Wheezes vouchers from the rest of the Weasley's. From her friends she had got a book of interesting charms and hexes from Heather, an elegant eagle feather quill from Jon and a selection of Honeyduke's sweets from Phoenix.

Just as they had finished Christmas lunch, Bluebell flew in through the window, dropping a parcel on Ollie' lap, a letter onto Harry's and a pale blue envelope onto the table, just narrowly missing the Christmas pudding; the envelope then suddenly jumped up to address the room.

'Joyeux Noë!l' came Gabby's voice ringing around the now silent room, as all the occupants now watched the envelope hover above the table. 'I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and apologise for not being able to make it today. Fingers crossed, you all got the presents I sent in advance and Ollie that parcel is from Susan, D and Emmy who wish you and your Dad a Happy Christmas. I hope to see you all soon, lots of love Gabrielle' and with that the letter floated back down onto the table.

'What did they send you?' Harry asked as he folded up the letter he had been sent and watched id daughter open her present.

'A hat and a scarf' she replied, plonking the knitted bobble hat on top of her head, the bright fuchsia pink, clashing horribly with the purple of the jumper.

The hat and scarf were soon put to good use when Ollie found herself outside in the snow, part taking in the traditional Weasley family snowball fight. On one team it was Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Ginny and Mr Weasley and on the other side it was Percy, who had been dragged out by his brothers, George, Angelina, Ron and Harry. Audrey, Mrs Weasley and Hermione had decided to sit out and were watching from the warm cosy kitchen with Rose and Roxie.

Ollie had joined her father's team and was now helping three year ld Lucy and five year old Fred to make snowballs for the adults to throw at each other, whilst Molly, Percy's other daughter as placing them in strategic points behind the snow fort, in preparation for the battle.

Luna, wrapped up warmly, blew the whistle to start the game from the edge of the field. Soon the air was full of balls of snow, with each team based around their hastily build snow fort. With the accuracy of a chaser, Ollie hurled a ball of tight compact snow at Charlie who was about to throw a large ball at her Dad. It hit him in the back of the head, so as it melted it caused a trickle of ice cold water to trickle slowly down his back, causing him a lot of discomfort. He looked around menacingly trying to work out where the attack had come from.

As Ollie hit behind the wall of the snow fort, she peaked though a small gap in the structure. She watched as her Dad had the most of the snow hurled at him by the opposing team, which she did not think was far, however it was quite amusing to watch. It was a good old fashioned snowball fight. No magic was allowed and all the wands had been left on the dining room table to ensure there was no cheating. George had tried to sneak past his mother by placing a fake wand on the table but after so many years of falling for that joke, Mrs Weasley had finally learnt the difference between George's real and fake wands.

Ollie aimed another snowball at Bill, hitting him in the chest, before ducking back behind the snow fort wall where Lucy was furiously making more ammunition.

Across the other side of the snowy battlefield, Victoire and her younger siblings were doing exactly the same thing, passing ready made snowballs to their grandfather who put them into organised piles.

Ollie watched as the attack on her father increased as his own team mates where doing nothing to stop it happening. Maybe it was their way of showing that he was still not completely forgiven for leaving, but it was not very nice, Ollie thought.

'Take that!' she shouted, throwing snowballs at all her father's attackers.

'Merlin's beard Harry!' Charlie remarked, wincing as the ice balls continued to hit him 'you daughter has a deadly aim!'

As Ollie continued to observe the fight which was happening the middle of the field, she watched in horror as the Weasley's, including her Dad's own team, formed a circle around him as he was catching his breath. It almost happened in slow motion, suddenly they all fired snow at Harry; however they never reached him. It was as if Harry was wrapped in a protective bubble which was holding all the balls of snow away from him. He had his arms outstretched in front of him, with a look of determination on his face as the balls orbited him, while his attackers had looks of astonishment on their faces.

'Nice one Dad!' Ollie called out, breaking the momentary silence which had fallen.

A small smirk formed on Harry's face as he heard his daughter's words of encouragement. He gave a small flick of his wrist and sent the snowballs at his attackers, hitting them straight in the face, catching them completely unawares.

'Wow that was so cool!' Fred remarked, his head peeking out from above the snow fort.

'No magic Harry!' Luna stated, marching though the snow onto the field

'But didn't you see?' Harry protested, arms waving around wildly 'my own team turned against me!'

Ollie came out of her hiding place and ran towards her Dad, who suddenly fell backwards into the snow. 'Dad!' she shrieked 'you idiot, the healers said that you should not magically exert yourself!' she lectured, worried about her Dad's health. 'Wandless magic is not good for you at the moment!'

'So I get no sympathy from you then?' Harry asked weakly as he opened his eyes to find the Weasleys all crowding around him, including the people who had been watching from inside.

'That was impressive wandless magic' Hermione said, in awe at her friend's powers.

'He was showing off' Ollie stated 'so it's his own fault as to why he is now lying in the cold snow'. As she said this Ron looked at Harry curiously. Even though he was on holiday he was still working on the major ongoing case, how Dawlish had been killed. Harry had been charged, but no one had really questioned him, Kingsley had just pushed for the arrest. Could Dawlish's death have been accidental? Ron wondered. The post mortem had shown that Dawlish had died as a result to and intracranial bleed caused by a blow to the head, like he had been pushed forcefully against the cave wall. Could he have been flung like those snowballs, by Harry's wandless, almost accidental magic? He looked up at the man in question who was currently looking quite embarrassed as an inquisitive member of the family questioned him about his new skill.

As this was happening, Ginny had sneaked away to get more snow. Slowly she crept back towards Harry, who was still trying to fend off her family's curious questions with her arms fill of snow. Slowly she raised her arms ready to strike...

Harry could sense that someone was still coming towards him. However stealthily they tried to be, he could still hear the crunch of their footsteps in the snow. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as the person nears. Without warning his IDA training kicked in, he span around sharply and pushed the person away, sending them into the snow.

'Potter!' Ginny spluttered, inhaling a load of snow before trying to pull herself up. Ginny was glad that her Mum had insisted putting on heating and water proofing charms onto all their clothes before they went outside, she knew she would be an ice cube by now if it was not for the warming charms.

Harry looked up. 'Oh I'm so sorry Ginny' he said apologetically, walking over towards the red haired woman and holding out his hand to help her up.

Ginny grabbed hold of his hand but instead of pulling herself up she pulled Harry down into the snow next to her, while with her other hand she grabbed a fistful of snow which she aimed at his face. 'Revenge' she said, grinning wickedly.

'No you don't' Harry said retaliating, he was not going to be beaten and he too grabbed some snow and threw it playfully back at her. Thus restarting the epic snowball fight as the other members rushed to their respective teammates defence.

As they finally trooped inside, their noses and cheeks bright red from their long exposure to the cold, to be greeted by Mrs Weasley's magnificent Christmas tea, Harry and Ginny exchanged a look. It was a look which spoke many things, love, lust, longing but as a need to talk, because though on the surface it looked as if all had been forgiven, it hadn't.

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><p><strong>I hope this chapter was christmassy and that you enjoyed it! I wrote it back at the beginning of November whist playing lots of Christmas music loudly to get myself in the mood!<strong>

**As always please read and review to let me know what you made of this chapter and what you think I can improve, a big thank you to everyone who reviewed last week.**

**All the best ~Cherry :)xx**


	21. Chapter 20

'Just go Ginny'

That was what Ollie woke up to two days after Christmas, raised voices. Slowly she crept down the stairs to see who was causing all the noise and found Harry and Ginny facing each other, a squirming Rose in Ginny's arms, clearly distressed by all the noise.

'Morning' she said, interrupting the silent staring competition that was happening between the adults.

'Morning Ollie' Harry replied. 'Do you think you could help find Rose some breakfast, I think she might be hungry'

Ginny reluctantly placed Rose on the floor. The red haired toddler immediately ran over to Ollie, who grabbed hold of her small hand and led her into the kitchen.

'Go Ginny I can deal with her' Harry said, turning back to face the other redhead 'I'm perfectly capable of looking after Rosie, so why don't you head to the hospital; I've got everything under control here.'

'You can look after a two year old girl?' Ginny asked sceptically.

'Well if I couldn't, would Ollie be here now?' he replied.

Ginny slumped in defeat. 'I'm just so scared after what happened last time'

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><p>'So why are you here Rose?' Ollie asked the bright two year old, while she buttered a piece of toast.<p>

'Daddy woke me up really early this morning and said I had to go to Grandma and Grandad's house because the baby was coming, but then Grandma and Grandad went with Daddy, leaving me with Aunt Ginny. I think Aunt Ginny wants to go to the hospital'

Oh, so that was what Ginny and her Dad were arguing about, Ginny wanted to go see how Hermione was doing, but did not want to leave Rose behind.

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><p>'It's going to be alright 'Harry said comfortingly, walking over to Ginny and wrapping his arms around her.<p>

'It was so scary last time, little Rosie coming prematurely, we did not know whether she would survive and Hermione losing all that blood. It was awful.'

'I know, I know'

Suddenly something inside Ginny snapped 'how would you know, you weren't there!' and she pulled sharply out of the hug.

'I was there Ginny' Harry stated calmly, he did not want to fight, especially with the two girls next door in the kitchen.

'But you weren't, not really' she said angrily. 'You were under your invisibility cloak. I thought I was going to lose another one of my best friends that night and I needed your there'

'And if I had just turned up, what would you have done?' Harry asked. 'You probably would not have wanted me to be there' he added bitterly.

'Of course I would've wanted you to be there, we all did! Ron wanted you to be Rose's Godfather, just like he wanted you to be his best man at his wedding'

'I'm not just talking about that time. I was under the impression that this family hated me and blamed me for what happened during the war. How could I come back and face you all? You were my first real family, Ginny, yet I felt as if I had been rejected after the war. I distinctly remember you saying that you hated me' he finished angrily 'you sent me away'

'I was grieving, my brother had just died!' she replied 'I was lost and confused'

'All I wanted to do was comfort you' Harry said softly 'wrap my arms around you and try and banish the previous year from your thoughts, but you ignored me'

'Why didn't you come back with Ollie? Ginny asked 'Why did you stay abroad?'

'If I had come back I would've been hounded by every single journalist from between Lands End and John O'Groats asking why I suddenly had a daughter. I needed the space and the time to decide what I wanted to do with my life. I finally decided that it would not be safe for Ollie to come to this country so soon after the end of the war'

'Then why didn't you make it better, I'm sure Kingsley wanted you to join the Auror Department and we could have helped you look after Ollie'

'Kingsley did ask and I refused' Harry answered shortly, not going into any details about that particular conversation. 'If you missed me so much why didn't you try and find me?' he asked

'Harry, if Voldemort could not find you, how we meant to? We spent the rest of the summer trying to find you we looked everywhere possible. Godric's Hollow, we tried to go to Grimmauld Place but we could not get in. Hermione tried to look in the Muggle world but to no success, in the end everyone else gave up but I kept looking since I made you go away. Why didn't you come back sooner?'

'I was going to' Harry admitted. 'I had finally plucked up the courage to talk to you at Ron and Hermione's wedding I went into the reception and saw you dancing with another man. It was not just friendly dancing, it was proper slow dancing. Do you know how painful it was to see you happy and laughing with a man who was not me? In a fit of jealousy I stormed out of the reception and missed all the embarrassing speeches. What made it worse was that your love life, since you were now the new up and coming international chaser, was splashed over every newspaper and magazine in Europe. I could not escape from it'

'Well did you expect me to stay single and wait for you forever?' Ginny asked angrily. 'I waited and waited, while everyone one else moved on with their lives, wishing you would come back. Finally I decided I had to move on and try and be happy it was not my fault that it all got splashed across the papers. It might have been painful for you to see, but you were not there and how do you think it felt when you broke up with me at Dumbledore's funeral to protect me?-'

'-It's who I am Ginny' Harry interrupted, getting more and more annoyed. 'I know I'm a stupid noble git, it's who I am. I have an urge to protect the people I love and to my sixteen year old self, it sounded like a good idea at the time. After you accepted it without putting up a fight and then ignoring me after the battle, I thought maybe you didn't love me'

'I loved you!' Ginny roared. 'I loved you so much. You broke my heart breaking up with me like that, but I accepted it willingly because that was what you wanted and if you were going off I wanted you to be happy'

Silence filled the room as the two adults paused to breath after their heated confrontation. Everything they had been bottling up since they had seen each other again had finally come out. They had both tried to pass over the past and move on but the misunderstanding and miscommunication between them was too great.

'Look, just go, Ginny, I can manage everything here' Harry said finally, running his hand through his hair.

'But-'

'I'm sure Hermione would appreciate your support' Harry added opening the door 'I can look after a two year old girl'

'Harry, I...' Ginny called out but realised that Harry had closed the door. As she prepared to apparate to St Mungo's, she cursed her Weasley temper. Everything had been going so well between her and Harry and now she had potentially blown it. Sighing, she turned on the spot and disappeared.

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><p>A while later, Ollie padded up the stairs to her father's room and slowly opened the door, a hot cup of tea in her hand 'I thought you might need this' she said, as she entered the room, placing the cup of tea down in front of her Dad who was sitting on the floor, leaning against the bed, unresponsive. 'Rosie's just taking a nap in my room' she said sitting down next to her Dad.<p>

'You're too good' Harry said finally, taking a sip from the comforting cup of tea. 'Am I a bad father?' he asked quietly.

'No!' Ollie replied immediately

'But I've put you through so much, stuff that a father should never put a child through. I have left you for months on end, put you in danger. You've been kidnapped because of me; I've made you move schools and made you stay with strange people.'

'Dad, so you have been slightly annoying but you are the best father I could have ever wished for. You have done so much for me. Taken me in, adopted me and loved me. You have done everything you possible could to keep me safe and happy; you taught me how to fly, read me bedtime stories and cheered me up when I was sad.'

'Really?'

'Dad, think where I would be if you had not managed to find me, I would probably be still living in the orphanage run by the nuns. I would not have an amazing family of you, Luna, Aunt Dora, Uncle Remus, Teddy and Millie. I would not know Nandy or even Cissa. I would be completely different person, who probably would think that she was alone in the world. Now I have a home. If I was still at the orphanage I probably would not know about my magic and I would definitely not know about this wonderful world I know live in.'

Harry watched his daughter play with her necklace; it brought to mind the conversation he had had with his godfather when he was in limbo. 'Your mother wants you to keep that safe' he said

'What?' Ollie asked, wondering what her Dad was on about.

'Apparently that's an old family heirloom, which Sirius wrote on the back of, and spelt your mother's name wrong'

'Dad what are you on about?' Ollie asked now even more confused, wondering what on earth her Dad was going on about, how did he suddenly know so much about her lucky pendent?

'When I was unconscious, I was visited by one Sirius Black'

'As in my...?' she left the question hanging, not wanting to say father, because she did not really view Sirius as her father.

'Yes' Harry replied. 'He talked about you, he's so proud and so sorry that he did not know about you when he was alive. He was so thrilled that you looked like him, with messy black curls and a cheeky expression but he mentioned that you have your mother's eyes.'

'Did he say anything else about her?' Ollie asked eager to find out any more information about the mysterious woman who gave birth to her.

'I think I caught a glimpse of her' Harry replied, trying to remember what he had seen in the windows to the worlds. 'There was this lady with blond hair and bright violet eyes, just like yours, who had a kind understanding look on her face'

'Is that it?' Ollie asked, disappointed at the lack of information.

'Well Sirius spoke of how much she loves you and how she wants you to keep that pendent safe, like I said it's an old family heirloom and Sirius said that he spelt her name wrong on the back'

'You mean she was not called Katarina?' Ollie interrupted 'So I'm not really named after her?'

'Maybe she just had a different variation of the name, a different spelling perhaps that sounded the same' Harry suggested calmly. 'Sirius just called her Rina'

'So they're up there' she pointed upwards 'together?' she asked.

'I think so' Harry replied

'You think they loved each other?'

'I guess' Harry said, wondering where this conversation was going.

'I just wish I knew for sure' Ollie sighted. 'Maybe I was just an unfortunate unwanted accident'

Harry wrapped his arm around his daughter and pulled her closer to him. 'Just because you might have been an accident, does not mean that you were unfortunate or unwanted. They both spoke about how much they love you and you are one of the best things which has ever happened to me' he said, pressing a kiss to the top of Ollie's head.

'Thank you for not telling the Weasleys the real reason why you found me and my heritage' Ollie said changing the subject slightly.

'It was no problem, I knew that it would be your secret to tell, though the Weasleys are perfectly nice people and would not judge you because of it. They knew Sirius well and I'm sure Mrs Weasley, like Professor McGonagall, thinks she knows you from somewhere.

'I'm just scared' Ollie whispered 'I don't want people shunning me because of my connection to a dark family'

'Bellatrix has been dead for nearly eleven years now' Harry stated 'and both Sirius and his brother Regulus died like heroes helping bring down Voldemort.'

'It's just I've seen and heard how hard it was for Aunt Dora to progress to a high up role in the Auror Department because of her aunt and how Draco has had a hard time trying to prove that he is now trustworthy because of his family name'

'How many people know?' Harry asked curiously

'You, Luna, Dora, Remus, Nandy, the Malfoys, Gabby, Susan and her family and Professor McGonagall' Ollie replied 'Oh and you had to tell the Minister...'

Harry sighed remembering the confrontation he had had with Kingsley. 'You haven't told anyone at school?'

Ollie shook her head 'even Teddy doesn't know that we are actually related. Dad I give you permission to tell Ginny' she said.

'What?'

'You can tell Ginny the real reason you stayed away for so long' Ollie clarified. 'If it had not been for me you would have come back sooner, and besides Aunt Luna says that you should not keep secrets from the people you love.'

'You think I should tell her?'

'The way Luna told your story, it made it sound as if you were very much on love before the war tore you apart' Ollie stated. 'She made it sound like a fairy tale and I did not believe her at first because you had never spoken about Ginny before, but then I saw all the little interactions between you and her in the last couple of weeks. Dad your eyes light up every time she enters the room and she always looks at you as if she's still checking that you are still here'

Harry stood up and walked over to the pile of belonging Kreacher and brought him, rummaging around he finally found his wallet and from inside his wallet he extracted an old photograph, which he gave to Ollie as he sat down back beside her.

Ollie looked closely at the photograph; it was a boy and girl sitting under a big tree, which o closer inspection she identified as the big tree by the lake a Hogwarts. The sun was shining as the tow teens gazing lovingly into each other's eyes, lost in their own little world, completely unaware that this photo was being taken.

'Dad, is that you and Ginny?' Ollie asked, handing back the photo.

'Yes' Harry replied, tucking it back into his wallet. 'That was taken in the summer of my 6th year when I was 16 and Ginny was 15 and she was supposed to be revising for her OWLs. Colin, Dennis' older brother took this photo.'

'You look so sweet together' Ollie said 'so in love'

'That was a long time ago Ollie'

'But you still love her?'

Harry nodded

'And she still loves you?'

'I don't know'

'Well she does, I can tell' Ollie replied knowingly. 'You should get back together again'

'It's more complicated than just getting back together' Harry said tiredly. 'We're not teenagers anymore, we're adults and if, if we got back together things would be different' he warned 'There would be another person in our little family'

'So' Ollie replied. 'If you love her, you should be with her. Things are changing anyway whether I like it or not. Luna is having a baby and will probably be moving, You Gabby and Dennis will have to leave the IDA after the trial if everything comes out. The Weasleys will become more involved in our lives and we will probably move into Potter House, since it is much nicer than the flat at Grimmauld Place, because I want to stay at Hogwarts. Dad, I just want you to be happy, you deserve to be happy. We should all stop living in the past, it has been and gone. We should live for now because who knows what will come' she said, picking up her Dad's now empty cup and walking out of the room, leaving Harry to his thoughts.

_**Daily Prophet 28****th**** December 2009**_

_Ron and Hermione Weasley would like to announce the birth of their son:_

_Hugo Arthur Weasley_

_Who was born yesterday. Both mother and child are doing well_

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><p><strong>Hi I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I can't believe I've made it to chapter 20! You didn't think that I would let Harry and Ginny get back together that easily?<strong>

**By now if you have been following this story you know that I update on a Thursday evening, however next week I am out carol singing (I love Christmas!) so won't be able to update at the the usual time so I will either update on Wednesday evening on on Thursday morning, so please look out for it at a different time.**

**As always thank you for all your reviews, they help me improve my writing and evolve this story**

**~All the best Cherry xx  
><strong>


	22. Chapter 21

'...Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to Ollie, happy birthday to you' came a chorus of voices singing loudly both and out of tune.

Ollie lean forward and with a big breath, blew out the fourteen candles that had been flickering on top of the large chocolate cake her Aunt Dora had made for her.

'Make a wish!' Millie called out.

Ollie closed her eyes tightly and made her wish, the smell of the candles filling the room. I wish this year will be better that last year she though, before opening her eyes and looking around the room.

'So what did you wish for?' Teddy asked curiously, his hair flashing between purple and electric blue for the occasion.

'She can't tell you, stupid!' his nine year old sister replied 'otherwise it won't come true'

'Hey you two, don't fight' came a voice of reason, breaking up the fight which was about to start between the two siblings.

'Sorry Grandma' they muttered looking up at Andromeda Tonks, who gave her grandchildren a smile.

'Why don't you go and get the card you made Ollie?' she suggested to Millie, who scuttled out of the room.

'No Scorpius, you've had enough cake!'Astoria Malfoy said, as her son reached out across the table to grab some of Ollie's piece of birthday cake with his very chocolaty and sticky hands.

'No Scorpy! It's my cake' Ollie exclaimed pulling her plate closer towards her.

'Must you call him that?' Draco asked, whilst his mother, Remus and Dora just chuckled.

'Because Scorpius is such as big name for such a little person' Ollie replied 'besides be like the name Scorpy'

'Scorpy' two year old Scorpius echoed, causing the adults to laugh even harder as Draco hid his head in his hands. Causing a necessary distraction Millie burst back into the room, nearly tripping over her own feet, since she had inherited her mother's poor sense of balance, before placing her card and present in front of Ollie.

As Ollie began to open her presents she looked around her room. Her Aunt Dora, as acting head of the Auror Department, had been able to pull a few strings and had managed to get Harry out of the Burrow to attend the birthday party she was holding for Ollie. She had fought bitterly for this privilege, battling against McIrish and Kingsley but she had stood firm, knowing that both Ollie and Harry were going stir crazy being cooped up at the Burrow. Finally the other Aurors had relented since she had claimed that Harry would be under her roof where she could keep an eye on him.

Ollie was extremely grateful to her aunt for getting her and her dad out of the Burrow. As much as she loved staying there, things hand now got extremely awkward between her father and Ginny. So much so that whenever harry entered a room Ginny left and vice versa. To make matters worse Mrs Weasley was still on a high from having a new grandchild and was constantly bustling around the house like a whirlwind fussing over everyone and everything. She had also been a bit annoyed when Ollie had announced that she was going to the Lupins for her birthday.

She hadn't liked turning down Mrs Weasley's offer to have a birthday party at the Burrow but she knew that if it was held there she would not have been able to invite the Malfoys, whom she had not seen in ages.

Cissa had wrapped Ollie in a big hug as soon as she had walked through the Lupin's front door. As Ollie had been squashed against Narcissa's soft cashmere jumper, inhaling her expensive perfume, Cissa had exclaimed how much she had grown since she had last seen her. Ollie and her Dad normally met up with the Malfoys once or twice a year at the Malfoy's retreat in the south of France which was situated near Beaubatons.

She remembered quite vaguely their first meeting. It was just after her third birthday. Her father had later told her that he had to alter the remaining members of the House of Black of the new heir. Out of all her fuzzy memories she could still remember Cissa's face of amazement when she had been told the news. She had stared at Ollie, who had been dressed in her best velvet dress with a matching bow perched jauntily on her messy curls, for a few seconds, before exclaiming that she was delighted by the fact that Sirius had had a child and the black name had been continued, well at least for another generation.

'Oh I know she will be known as Ollie Potter' she had said 'but she had the look of a Black, doesn't she Andy?' she nudged her older sister, whom she had been reunited with after the battle, who had nodded.

The statement had become etched into Ollie's memory. She had always wondered what Cissa had meant by the statement _'she has the look of a Black'_, could it mean that she looked slightly mad. Kreacher had told her how madness seemed to run in the family, due to generations of inter breeding, and Bellatrix's story and Old Mrs Blacks portrait had added weight to this theory. Her Dad had reassured her by saying that Cissa only meant that she had inherited the wild black curls, something blond Narcissa had not, but Ollie had always from a young age tried to be good so she would not turn out like the Blacks of the past.

Ollie was slowly coming to terms with her heritage, at least she was related to some of the good members of the family, she had told her herself repeatedly that her real father had been a good wizard. She had seen how hard it had been for Draco to fit in, even at the IDA, where he worked as an informant, people still treated him with some suspicion.

As Harry watched his daughter open the numerous amounts of gifts she had been given, he glanced at Draco and gestured for him to come over to join him in a quiet corner. If someone had told him during the war that in ten years time he would be on sort of amicable terms with Draco Malfoy he would had probably though they were having a laugh. However at the IDA they had worked together on various cases, using Draco's knowledge of dark magic and Harry's hero complex to crack them. Harry also knew how much Ollie enjoyed spending time with Astoria, Draco's extremely fashionable, glamorous wife and little Scorpius.

'I heard you have been put under house arrest' Draco stated as he joined his former nemesis in the corner. 'I can believe that you killed Rookwood, Carrow and Umbridge, but I can't believe you killed the head of the Auror department'

'Not intentionally' Harry replied taking a swig of butter beer before continuing 'he was not entirely innocent and was about to kill me. He also was the reason why everyone was able to escape or be released from Azkaban.

'You must be joking!'

'I have concrete evidence'

'So what do you want from me?' Draco asked

'I was wondering if you could tell me anything about project Runespore'

'So you're the reason why both Gabrielle Delacour and Susan have been pestering me about the organisation of the three headed snake, Susan's defending you in court?'

'Yes' Harry replied 'so what do you know?'

'Not much to be honest' Draco replied 'It's not an old organisation, probably set up soon after the war, which I means I don't know too much about it apart from the fact they tried to recruit my father before he died'

'Did he join?'

'I don't think so, I think he was too ill by that time to really know what was being asked of him' Draco said referring to the bout of Dragon Pox which had resulted in Lucius Malfoy's death.

'Ollie we have another present to give you' Andromeda told her honorary Granddaughter and she gestured to the present her younger sister was bringing forward. 'Now you are fourteen we thought it was time to present you with this' she said as Narcissa placed the immaculately wrapped box in front of Ollie

Ollie looked at the present apprehensively, wondering what the two witches had given her and what was so special about it. With the Teddy and Millie looking over her shoulders she carefully untied the bow and peeled back the paper to reveal a big wooden box with a crest caved into the top.

'That's the Black Family crest!' Millie exclaimed loudly causing everyone to turn and look at her. 'What? I like looking at the tapestry in Uncle Harry's house' she stated.

Ollie ran her fingers over the carving 'Toujours pur' always pure. Slowly she lifted the lid of the box to be blinded by its contents. She discovered a magnificent necklace staring back at her along with a pair of matching earrings and a stunning broach in the shape of a falcon, the Black family symbol. 'Wow' she said as the jewels sparkled in the light.

'These have been in the family for centuries' Cissa stated 'I think there might even be a matching tiara in the vaults somewhere as well...'

'These have been past down to the eldest Black girl to reach marriageable age since the 1600s' Andromeda said cutting through her sister's ramblings.

'But I'm only 14!' Ollie exclaimed

'And back then it was when girls were married'

Ollie picked up the falcon broach. 'Who was the last person to own these' she whispered, putting the broach back down quickly back in the box as if it contained some sort of contagious disease.

'Bella' Narcissa replied quietly 'Bella that the last person to own these'

Ollie looked at the jewels in the box in horror. How could they give her something that had belonged to her real father's killer, where they mad?

'But I was the last person to wear them' Narcissa continued 'I borrowed them off Bella to wear at my coming out ball''

'Did you wear them Nana?' Millie asked curiously

'No Millie I didn't' Andromeda replied 'I never had a coming out ball because I ran away with your grandfather instead' she looked wistfully into the distance remembering what it had been like to runaway and defy her family.

'Ollie, it's not the jewels which are bad' Harry said reassuringly 'it's the choices the person wearing them makes, which defines whether they are good or bad and even then the lines are blurred slightly'

'Every old wizarding family has its own traditions' Narcissa told Ollie. 'The Blacks have this' she gestured to the jewellery box 'the Pewetts have their clock...'

'The Malfoys the snake headed cane' Draco said, joining in with the conversation.

'The Greengrass' have a necklace' Astoria stated 'though my elder sister Daphne got that'

'The Potter's have the cloak' Harry said passing the broach back to Ollie.

'And the Lupin's have -' Remus started

'Daddy do we have any pretty jewels?' Millie interrupted eagerly

'- have brains' Remus finished earning himself a playful whack on the shoulder form his wife. 'I'm just saying we're not so interbred that we are not thick as two short planks. I mean look at the Goyle's, you would think that they were part Troll!'

This statement caused everyone to laugh and helped lighten the mood. Ollie looked down at the falcon, her heritage.

'Wait a minute, if you're getting the Black family jewels, does this mean you're actually related to me?' Teddy asked

'My father, my real father, was Sirius Black' Ollie said, looking directly at Teddy, trying to gage his reaction. The room fell silent.

'Why didn't you tell me?' Teddy asked finally finding his voice, hurt that someone so close to him had kept such a big secret.

'I was not ready for the world to know' she replied

'And now?' Draco asked the young girl curiously since he had been affected by his family's name the most out of all of them.

'I guess I'll have to be' she replied pinning the falcon broach on to her jumper.

* * *

><p>It was late when Harry and Ollie left the Lupin house having saying goodbye to everyone. Harry had side-long appartated Ollie back to the Burrow, her present, including the Black family heirlooms, hand been shrunk and where now in her pocket.<p>

They arrived with a 'pop' at the apparation point just outside the Burrow. They entered through the back gate into the garden and were greeted by a happy but tired Hermione.

'We weren't sure when you would be back' she said to Harry pulling him towards the group of Weasleys who were gathered in the garden.

'Ah Ollie, Harry, just in time' Mrs Weasley remarked upon seeing the pair.

'Happy Birthday kitten' came a voice in the darkness. Ollie turned around and saw her Godmother who walked towards her and gave her a hug. 'You enjoyed your party?' Luna asked. She had been invited but after all these years she still did not being in the presence of the Malfoy family for too long because it brought back too many bad memories.

'Yes, how was it?' Mrs Weasley asked.

'Oh it was really good' Ollie replied. 'This year Dora managed not to burn the cake and it was lovely to see Teddy and Millie and Scorpy, who has grown so much and Cissa and Astoria were also there' she added.

Cissa, as in Narcissa Malfoy? Molly thought. What in Merlin's name was she doing at Ollie's birthday party? Then Molly caught sight of the falcon broach on Ollie's jumper and things began to fall into place. She remembered seeing a broach similar to that before, pinned proudly on to Bella Black's robes. They had been in the same year at Hogwarts and her and Bellatrix had been regular sparing partners in the duelling club.

She remembered on particular duel where Bella talked about the fact that she had got the precious Black heirlooms on her birthday and wasn't it a shame that the Prewett's only had a mad clock. Molly had then retaliated by stating that her Aunt Muriel had a goblin made tiara which was probably nicer than some dusty jewels, before blasting Bella to the floor. That had been in her third year just after Bella had turned fourteen.

Then there were the wild black curls and the fact that Ollie and Harry had stayed in Italy, the Blacks had had a house at there. Ollie couldn't be a Black, could she? They had all died out. Molly looked at the girl in question. Ollie had run over to greet Gabrielle, who had brought Dennis along to introduce to the rest of the family as they celebrated New Year. Molly watched as an impish grin formed on Ollie's face as she snuck over to George and slipped one of his own creations, a dissolvable delight (slip into a drink and watch them sing!), into his butter beer. She remembered seeing that look long ago, when Sirius Black planned to prank Remus because he was so bored being cooped up in Grimmauld Place.

If Ollie was Sirius Black's daughter, it would explain why Harry had adopted Ollie at the tender age of eighteen and why she was as close as she was to Andromeda, Tonks and probably the Malfoys. Walking over to her husband to watch George's (who was now singing Opera) firework display, she wondered who Ollie's mother was.

Ollie could sense that Mrs Weasley was observing her. As she stood next to Gabby she looked down at the broach which was still pinned onto her jumper. She was not going to take it off, she decided, she was going to be proud. Her mind made up, she walked over to her Dad, who was standing at the edge of the group waiting for the fireworks to start. She slipped her hand into his and gave it a squeeze as the fireworks began to soar through the sky signalling the start of the New Year. Ollie looked at everyone's faces, illuminated by the light of the exploding fireworks, which everyone seemed to be staring at apart from her father and Ginny, who just seemed to be staring at each other.

* * *

><p><em>Hi I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry nit much HarryGinny action but it is coming in future chapters!_

_I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!_

_Cherry :) x  
><em>


	23. Chapter 22

'And you are sure you've packed everything?'

'Yes Dad' Ollie replied for the fifth time in a row.

'Have you checked?'

'Yes Dad, I've checked, you've checked, Mrs Weasley has checked and so has Ribbons'

'Just making sure'

Honestly Dad, you fuss more than Mrs Weasley' Ollie exclaimed.

'I just want to make sure that you go back to Hogwarts with all your stuff' Harry replied, lifting up the trunk and carrying down the stairs.

'Am I taking the train back to school?' Ollie asked.

'I talked to Remus and we decided that it would be better if Luna took you back to school because it would save you from all the attention you would receive on the train'

'Attention?'

'Ollie, the date of my trial was announced yesterday in the Daily Prophet, people are bound to be curious and since you're my daughter, they'll pester you for the whole journey'

'Aren't you just delaying the inevitable?' Ollie asked as she followed her Dad down the stairs, Bluebell perched on her shoulder 'once I get back to school, I'm going to be questioned anyway.'

'But at school everyone will be so busy they won't really notice you' Harry insisted 'and besides Luna wants so visit the castle because she had not seen it in years'

The father and daughter stood in silence, staring in to space as they waited for Luna to arrive. The Burrow was unnaturally quiet. Mrs Weasley had dragged her long suffering husband along to the January sales in Diagon Alley and Ginny, who was still not talking to her father, had depart early to spend the day in Holyhead to start her quidditch training so she could rejoin the starting team when the quidditch season reassumed in late January.

'Dad, Luna's here!' Ollie announced 'Dad...DAD!'

'Wait?' Harry replied snapping out of his thoughts.

'Are you ok?' Ollie asked her Dad in concern; he never really acted like this.

'Don't worry Ollie, Harry's head was just temporally filled with Wrackspurts, that's all' Luna stated.

Harry looked at Luna in shock, Wrackspurts? He tried to remember the last time she had mentioned that made up animal. Luna gave Harry a small smile before taking hold of Ollie's trunk and dragging it towards the door.

'Bye Dad' Ollie whispered, giving her Dad a hug 'love you'

'Love you more' Harry replied, pressing a tender kiss to his daughter's forehead, before releasing her and pushing her towards the door, to catch up with Luna who was making her way casually down the path towards the gate.

'Don't get into too much trouble!' he called out after her as she ran to catch up with her Godmother. Luna grabbed hold of Ollie's hand as they reached the apparation point outside the Burrow and disappeared with a pop.

'Are you allowed to apparated whilst pregnant?' Ollie asked curiously after they landed outside Hogwarts' gates.

'Up until the end of your fourth month, you can' Luna replied, rubbing her small bump affectionately. 'Ribbons!' she called out.

'Yes Miss Luna' the small house elf replied eagerly as she appeared out of thin air.

'Can you take Ollie's trunk up to the school?' Luna asked.

'Would Miss Luna like Ribbons to take her up to the castle as well?'

'No thanks' Luna replied kindly 'I think we will be ok with the walk'. With a nod the house elf grabbed hold of the trunk and with a crack they had gone.

'It has not changed at all' Luna remarked as they made their way up to the castle.

'Look, its Professor Longbottom' Ollie said, pointing towards the figure coming towards them.

'Look Ollie, your nearly there and I've got to go-'

'Luna, come on isn't Professor Longbottom an old friends of yours?' Ollie asked dragging her reluctant Godmother towards the professor. 'Hi Professor Longbottom she called out as they approached one another.

'Hello Ollie, did you have a good Christmas?' Neville asked his student pleasantly, trying to work out whole the strange woman standing next to Ollie was.

'I had a great Christmas' Ollie replied, before catching sight of a figure in the distance. 'Oh look, Teddy's waiting for me' she remarked pointing to the blue haired boy standing outside the entrance of the school, waving madly. 'See you soon Luna' she said, giving her godmother a quick hug before racing towards the castle, leaving the two adults behind.

'Hi Neville' Luna said finally, brushing an annoying bit of hair out of her eyes and looking down at her hands.

'Hello Luna' Neville replied, looking at the blonde witch standing in front of him. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a big chunky jumper which was covered in stars, an ensemble which was not as wacky as her old dress sense. Her long wild blond mane was now tamed into a neat bob which was being blown around mercilessly by the wind. The former boyfriend and girlfriend stared at each other an awkward silence falling between the as they tried to work out what to say next.

Neville cleared his throat, 'what are you doing here?' he asked finally.

'Oh I offered to take Ollie back, since Harry is stuck under house arrest' she replied 'and now I'm here I was wondering if I could talk to Hagrid. I want to gain access to the herd of thestrals. How long have you been a professor?' she asked as they made their way down to Hagrid's hut.

'This is my third year teaching' Neville replied. 'After the war was recruited into the Aurors, they were in short supply and it was the right thing to do, but after a couple of years I was not enjoying it, I had had enough of the fighting. I had always been passionate about Herbology so I wrote to Professor Sprout who offered me a job as her assistant, then she retired the next year so I took up the post as professor'

Luna knocked on Hagrid's big wooden front door.

'So wha' can I do for this mornin' Neville-' Hagrid stopped short, noticing the Herbology professor's companion. 'Why, it can't be Luna Lovegood?' he remarked.

'Hi Hagrid' Luna replied pleasantly

'Luna was wondering whether she could gain access to the herd of thestrals' Neville explained.

'It's just I really need to finish my research on magical horses and I know that Hogwarts has the biggest herd in Europe...' she trailed off, looking up at the big half giant hopefully.

'O'course' Hagrid replied walking back into his hut to collect an old piece of meat before walking out of his hut and leading both Luna and Neville into the forest.

'So what is your research on?' he asked as they walked deeper and deeper into the forest.

'Magical horses and how they evolved and relate to one another' she replied

'So you're like the new Newt Scaramander' Hagrid said cheerfully

Neville saw a shadow fall across Luna's face, that quickly disappeared 'something like that' she whispered

'Well here we are' the games keeper announced to the pair.

Luna looked into the clearing and saw all the thestrals. 'Oh they're beautiful!' she exclaimed gazing at them in awe.

'I'll trust that you will be able to find you own way beck' Hagrid said leaving the pair alone as he went to check on his half brother, Grawp, who was still residing in the depth of the forest.

'Are you ok?' Neville asked Luna, who was still staring at the horses.

'I'd forgotten how beautiful they were' she replied throwing the raw piece of meat Hagrid had left behind at a nearby foal. 'They are such misunderstood creatures' she said sitting down on a nearby fallen tree.

'Do you remember when we flew to London on them?' Neville asked sitting down beside her.

'Yes, the look on Ron's face!' Luna replied smiling as she remembered how scared the red head had been because at the time he could not see thestrals. 'How are you Neville?' she asked suddenly.

'I'm ok'

'How's everything with Hannah?' she asked 'I saw your engagement announcement in the Daily Prophet'

'She broke it off' he murmured

'Oh, I'm so sorry' she replied, reaching out the hold his hand.

'It's ok' he replied looking down 'I wanted children and she didn't, she didn't like the fact I had to spend so much time away up at Hogwarts and she also did not get on very well with my Grandmother.'

'But she'd perfectly lovely!' Luna interjected, jumping to the old lady's defence.

'So I guess it was best she broke it off before we were stuck in an unhappy marriage' he finished. Luna gave his hand a comforting squeeze. 'How are things between you and Rolf? Ollie told me about him' Neville asked

Luna did not reply, she just looked at the ground. Neville watched as the wind blew gently pushing her jumper towards her, revealing the outline of her bump. 'You're pregnant!' he exclaimed, though admittedly a bit half heartedly. 'Congratulations!' he looked at Luna, who was still unresponsive, 'What's wrong?'

'I guess Rolf was a bit like your Hannah' she replied rubbing her bump.

'You mean he doesn't want it?'

Luna shook her head 'it's worse than that. I discovered that our whole relationship had been a lie. He used me and now wants nothing to do with me or his child' and with that she told Neville everything.

'I hadn't really dated anyone one properly since you and I broke up, there had been a couple of people, but no one serious. Then one day when I was visiting the unicorn reserve in the Alps, I met this man, he introduced himself as a wizard naturalist and he seemed genuinely interested in what I was researching. Ollie and Harry did not like Rolf, I thought that Ollie was just jealous because I was not spending so much time with her not I had Rolf in my life and that Harry was just being extremely over protective. Rolf, being the grandson of Newt Scaramander was able to whisk me off to all sorts of animal reserves. It was amazing but I never questioned why he was so interested in my work' She paused, wiping a tear.

'The one day I discovered a pile of letters from Ollie and Harry and even Gabby, trying to contact me. I had been upset because I thought that they had not bothered to write, but here I was discovering that Rolf had been keeping these letters from me. When I confronted him about it all and told him that I was pregnant, he finally revealed his true colours. He only needed me because he was trying to revise his grandfather's book, which was slightly outdated and had needed my help and now he wanted nothing to do with me. Then Bluebell, Ollie's owl found me and I knew I had get back' she paused again to catch her breath.

'I'm sorry for unloading everything on you Neville' she said as he shuffled closer to her, as they sat on the fallen tree. 'It's just that I really needed a friend who would listen. Harry's has a lot on his plate at the moment with the trial and Ginny and Hermione has her new baby. There is something about Neville' she whispered 'even after all these years it feels like I can still trust you, thank you for listening'

'No problem Luna as they looked back at the Threstrals in front of them.

After a couple of minutes Luna stood up 'I was so stupid I forgot to bring my notebook!' she muttered crossly, searching her numerous pockets 'I guess I'll have to come back another day to take down some notes and sketches.'

'Would you mind if I accompanied you next time?' Neville asked hesitantly standing up and holding her hand.

'I'd like that' she replied, giving his hand a squeeze and smiling as they walked out of the forest towards the castle.

* * *

><p>'So what brings you two here?' Harry asked looking at Ron and Hermione who were sitting on the sofa opposite him.<p>

'Well I was up last night feeding Hugo, when I suddenly thought, we've been so caught up by Christmas and the new baby and everything else, that we had completely forgotten about your trial' Hermione said really quickly.

'Don't worry about it' Harry replied. 'So where is Hugo and Rose at the moment?' he asked trying to change the subject, hoping like most new mums, Hermione would now start gushing about her children and his trial would remain forgotten.

'Mum and Dad are looking after them, to give us a break' she replied 'but stop trying to change the subject Harry!'

Harry just laughed, it reminded him of all those times at Hogwarts when Hermione had been determined to lecture him about something. Ron was also thinking along the same lines as Harry and started to laugh as well.

'Stop it Ronald, Harry! This is very serious business!'

Hermione its fine, you don't need to worry, I've got everything covered' Harry insisted.

'Well, have you got someone to defend you? And I was thinking about doing some research in to similar cases, though I'm sure that the IDA is very secretive and I know Kingsley, because I used to work in Law Enforcement before we had our little disagreement-'

'-Hermione you set your bird of the man!' Ron interjected

'-so I think I know how they will interrogate you'

'Hermione thank you, but trust me, I've got everything under control. Do you think that the IDA would just through me to the wolves after all that I was done for them? Luckily for me they have given me one of the best people in the business to defend me.'

'Who?' Hermione asked curiously

'Susan'

'Susan who?' Ron asked as realisation dawned on his wife's face.

'Susan Bones' Harry stated 'she still goes by her maiden name even though she's married'

'But I thought that she left law to marry a muggle' Hermione asked. Susan Bones had been, as well as an old school friend, a colleague of hers at the Ministry of magic. Many witches and wizards had compared Susan to her aunt, Amelia, who had been head of Law and enforcement during the war and had been killed by Voldemort personally. Even though she had shown a lot of promise, Susan had fallen out with her superiors over matters of reform. They were stuck in the old ways and looked down on the newer members of the department who we young but had new ideas and wanted to change things. Susan had found this frustrating especially since some of the member of the department ostracised her for being engaged to a muggle. Finally Susan had had enough and had resigned before disappearing for the magical world. Hermione had though it had been such a shame at the time because she had the potential to be amazing and it was actually for similar reason she had resigned from the ministry shooting her attacking birds at Minister Shacklebolt.

'She did marry and muggle and trained in muggle law' Harry replied 'but she also joined the IDA to help its members. I think I have given her, her most difficult case yet.'

'So you trust her?'

'I have to, and besides Gabby is gathering up all the evidence, though she's still trying to work out if we can use a pensive, which would help a lot'

'Unless the ministry have any memories they wish to show wizengamot to use against you, you won't be able to' Hermione replied. 'They will probably make you take veritaserum'

Harry wrinkled his nose in disgust. He hated the thought that the potion would force him to tell the truth in answer to any question. Potentially he would not be able to keep anything secret, however if this was what it would take to win the trial and get back to Ollie he was prepared to do it.

'So what is going on between you and my sister?' Ron asked, looking at Harry curiously. 'It is my duty as a Weasley brother to inform you that if you break my sister's heart blah blah blah, you've heard it all before Harry, just don't hurt her'

'You don't have to worry about that Ron, nothing going on between us' Harry replied.

'It did not look like nothing to me' Hermione added. 'I saw the way you two looked and interacted with each other at Christmas, it looked as if you were getting on'

'Well we're not'

'Harry what happened?'

'We might have had a fight'

'And?'

'Now she's not talking to me.'

'Well maybe you should make the first move?' Hermione suggested.

'What if she does not want to talk?'

'Harry, do you love her?' Ron asked seriously

'Yes'

'And we all know she loves you' Hermione stated.

'Since she was so miserable when you had disappeared' Ron added

'So you should make the first step' Hermione finished. 'Just go for it and it will all work out in the end, you love each other'

* * *

><p><strong>Hi! just a quick note to say thank you to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter and I hope you enjoyed this one. I hope you all have a good New Year!<strong>

**Cherry :) x**


	24. Chapter 23

'Urgh! Why did Professor Vector have to set us so much homework?' Ollie moaned to Heather as they left their Arithmancy lesson. 'We've only been back at school a week and it's horrible and I can't remember anything!'

'Well you should have looked over your notes over Christmas' Heather remarked as they walked along the corridor to their next lesson.

'Heather, it was a holiday! You're not meant to do work and besides my holiday was quite eventful'

'Well not everyone can have fathers or godmothers magically turn up in time for Christmas' Heather replied coolly.

'Oh, I'm so sorry' Ollie said remembering how upset Heather had been when she had written to Ollie to tell her that her mother had not bothered to see her at Christmas since she was too busy in Milan with her latest boyfriend. 'You still had a good time with your Aunt and Uncle?'

'Yeah' Heather replied 'but it's not the same'

'Hey guys!' came Phoenix's chirpy voice cutting through her friend's glum thoughts. 'Looking forward to Lupin's lesson?'

Before either Ollie or Heather could reply, Jon appeared, huffing and puffing. 'Phee, I wish you would not walk so quickly' he stated catching up with his friends. 'You dropped this in your haste' he added, holding out her care of magical creatures textbook.

'Thanks' she replied, shoving it into her bag. They neared Professor Lupin's classroom and slipped into their usual seats at the back of the room.

'Books out and turn to page 47' Lupin said, sitting at his desk at the front of the classroom. The full moon, just after New Year had not been a good one and the professor was still feeling its effects. 'We will be studying werewolves, read and take notes in preparation for next lesson when we will have a quick test'

There was a loud rustling noise as pieces of parchment, quills and ink appeared and the class set to work.

'You'll never guess what we saw during Care of magical creatures' Phoenix whispered to Ollie and Heather as they began to take notes.

'What?' Ollie asked

'Well as Professor Hagrid was leading us into the forest to show us some baby unicorns we saw in the distance Professor Longbottom and a mysterious woman sitting on this fallen tree trunk.'

'What did she look like?'

'She had short blonde hair and it looked as if she had her wand tucked behind her ear. She seemed to be alternating between holding Professor Longbottom's hand and scribbling something in a notebook. This page blew away' Phoenix said, passing a piece of parchment over to Heather and Ollie. It had a dark skeletal horse sketched on it with various annotations. 'To be honest, I don't know what she was drawing since there was nothing there, just forest'

'Merlin's Beard!' Ollie exclaimed loudly

'No talking at the back' Lupin said sharply, glaring in the direction of the group of friends in the back row.

'I can't believe it! I thought there was something going between them' Ollie muttered

'What is it?' Phoenix asked eagerly

'That blonde haired woman you saw, I think it could have been my Aunt Luna' Ollie replied 'She's writing a paper on magical horses at the moment'

'Yes, but that does not explain what she was doing with Professor Longbottom'

'McQueen, Potter, if you can't stop talking, I'll have to split you up and have you both back for detention tomorrow evening' Professor Lupin said firmly.

'Sorry Professor' the two girls mumbled before returning to their notes on werewolves. Professor Lupin was definitely in a bad mood today.

The Lesson had finished with Heather and Professor discussing werewolf rights, much to the disgust of some of the slytherins in the class. Heather's Aunt, Lavender, had been attacked by a werewolf during the battle of Hogwarts and had nearly died as a result of her injuries. On recovery she had been refused entrance into the Auror Department and other departments of the Ministry, even though she had the right qualifications, just because of her scars. Lavender now, with the help of Hermione Weasley ran and organisation campaigning for equal rights.

They walked back up to Gryffindor tower to dump their stuff before dinner. Ollie sat in the corner of the common room with her fellow third years, Heather, Jon, Phoenix as well as Maisie and Elenora and Jon's roommates Dylan and Archie. As they started a quick game of exploding snap there was a tapping sound on the window. Everyone looked up to see a brown owl hovering at the window. Teddy, who was closest to the window stood up and opened it, allowing the imperious looking owl into the common room.

It swooped in, landing in front of a startled Ollie, dropped the letter before flying off again into he night. Aware of everyone's curious gaze on her, Ollie retreated up to the safety of her dormitory, where she opened the letter. I was from Susan, who was defending her father. Susan had written to tell her that she was needed as a witness for her father's defence. Susan needed her to tell the court about what happened in Egypt. Ollie had not a clue how what happened in Egypt related to her father being tried for the murder of Dawlish, but she trusted Susan.

Sinking back into her four poster bed, she remembered Egypt, how horrible it had been and how happy she and been when her father had managed to rescue her. She hated reliving those days in the darkness. Suddenly another though occurred to her, the date of the trial was the same date as the next quidditch match against Hufflepuff. What was she going to tell Samuels? He was going to kill her for missing the match! With that she buried her head into her pillow.

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><p>Harry put down the long letter Ollie had sent him. She had been writing to bemoan the fact the fact that even though she could not play in the quidditch match, Samuels was still making her turn up to all the practises so she could help the seventh year, Smyth, her temporary replacement, fit into the team. She had written stating how Samuels had come up with a mad scheme of trying to make them start practise at five in the morning. However his plan had failed because he was not able to get into the girl's dormitories so all the girls on the team had been allowed to sleep. Harry smiled, remembering how obsessive quidditch captains could be, he recalled Oliver Wood's catch it or die trying motto!<p>

This letter was written in a much lighter tone, compared to the one she had sent a couple of days ago, telling him about Susan's request. Her letter had been scribbled hastily onto a piece of parchment as she told him she was going to do it. Harry knew how hard this was for her, even though she was now a teenager, what had happened to her when she was eight still haunted her. At that moment, Harry had wanted to grab his cloak and wand and go up to Hogwarts and just sooth her fears. Instead he had had to settle for telling her that she was extremely brave and if she had any worries she could always talk to Remus or speak to Madame Pomfrey about getting some dreamless sleep potion if the nightmares came back.

Harry reread the postscript on the latest letter: _'Ps. You never guess what'_ Ollie had written at the bottom of the _letter 'we keep seeing Luna and Professor Longbottom together in the grounds, what do you think is going on there?'_ Harry was glad that Luna was talking to Neville.

As the flowery scent of Ginny Weasley came down the stairs, Harry's mind wandered to Ollie's final comment '_PPS. Dad, are you and Ginny talking yet? Come on Dad go for it, the past is the past, think about the future, I don't want you to be alone'_

Harry looked over at the red head; she had just entered the kitchen and was making herself a cup of tea. Her hair fell across her face, shielding it from Harry's gaze. Harry pocketed the letter and stood up straight, mustering all his Gryffindor courage, he walked into the kitchen.

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><p><strong>Happy New Year!<strong>

**I can't quite believe that this story has made it into 2012! Sorry this chapter is so short. I've got January Exams coming up so I have been spending most of my time revising, so I haven't had much time to write as much as I would've liked over the holidays. As always PLEASE review, they mean so much to me and encourage me to keep writing, especially when I have a huge writer's block. The next chapter will be up next Thursday so please look out for it.**

**All the best!**

**Cherry :)xx**


	25. Chapter 24

Ginny looked up and the sound of someone entering the room. It was Harry and she began to move away from him. They had been playing this game of avoidance for nearly two weeks now, which was actually quite a feat, since they were living in the same house. She had started avoiding him because she thought that he did not want to see her, after he closed the door on her and shut her out. She knew he had good reason to; he had every right to be mad at her. Harry, had then started avoiding her because he probably though that she was annoyed at him, so now they were caught up in one big tangled web of confusion. However she was prevented from moving by Harry who was blocking her way.

'Hi Ginny he said hesitantly 'how was your practise? He asked, referring to the Harpies practise she had been to that morning.

'It was good' she replied, wondering why he was now suddenly talking to her.

'Um so' Harry tried to work out what to say next, it had never been this hard to talk to Ginny. 'Do you want to go for a walk?' he asked finally

Ginny looked down, taking a sip from her mug of tea nervously

'Please' Harry insisted 'There's something I really need to talk to you about'

Curiosity finally got the better of Ginny and she put down her cup of tea. Soon they were walking in the cold outside the Burrow. Ginny's hair and green Harpies scarf was blowing around in the wind as Harry led her to the Burrow's apparition point.

'Harry, where are you going? You can't leave the Burrow' Ginny stated walking behind him. Harry held out his hand and with a moment's hesitation she reached out to hold it. With a 'pop' they were gone.

'Harry, you're under house arrest, you can't be doing this!' Ginny said as they appeared in a field in the middle of nowhere.

'Ginny you're starting to sound like Hermione; I can do this' Harry replied. 'This is how Tonks was able to get me out of the Burrow for Ollie's Birthday, though since she does not live at the Burrow she had to pull a couple of strings. Basically being under house arrest means not only being kept in one house, in wizarding law it also being under the watch of the people living in the house as well. It means that I can't leave the house myself and escape but I can leave under the supervision of one of the members of the family that owns the house. I can leave with you but not with Hermione or Ollie.'

'I didn't give you permission to leave' Ginny stated

'But you agreed to come with me' Harry replied smirking

'Harry!'

'I just really needed to talk to you'

'So talk' Ginny stated stopping in her tracks and folding her arms, waiting for Harry's response.

Harry turned to look at the red head. She did not look angry but merely curious. 'I guess I haven't been entirely honest with you' he said, watching her face closely to see what her reaction was. When her facial expression remained neutral he continued cautiously. 'I didn't tell you the truth as to why I went away in the first place-'

'-I know it was because of me Harry' Ginny interrupted

'Our argument wasn't the full reason and it was not because Luna wanted to go travelling, she just tagged along with me on my little quest'

'Quest?'

'After the war I moved back to Grimmauld Place' Harry replied. 'Kreacher, at my request was restoring the house, which included the Black Family tapestry, you remember, the one Sirius was blasted off?' Ginny nodded remembering the holes in the tapestry, where the Blacks who had not lived up the family's expectations, had been blasted off. 'Well as Kreacher restored it, we noticed names appearing on the tree. When Andromeda was restored both Tonks and Teddy appeared on the tree. Anyway, when Sirius was restored another name appeared underneath it, according to the tree, Sirius had had a child...'

'Ollie' Ginny whispered, finishing Harry's sentence.

'Yes' Harry replied. 'Kreacher was determined to find her, but was not up to doing it and I took the opportunity to get out of the country and escape from the madness, so I offered to find the child, however at that point I did not think I would be away for over a decade'

'So why were you?'

'It was after we found Ollie and Luna said I had to adopt her in order to protect her'

'Why?'

'Ginny, this was just after the war; you remember what it was like? Ollie had the surname Black, which had, and still has dark connotations. That's why Ollie doesn't like to tell people her real heritage because of what they might think about her.'

'So why are you telling me?' Ginny asked, puzzled as to why Harry was telling her is daughter's secret.

'Ollie gave me permission to tell you' Harry replied 'she though you deserved to know the truth since she was one of the reasons I stayed away for so long. I love her so much and I didn't want her to grow up in a society that still judged wizards and witches by their last name.'

'What was the other reason?' Ginny wondered

'Kingsley'

'The Minister! What did he have to do with anything?'

'I had to come back here to register Ollie's adoption; I snuck into the Ministry to fill in the paperwork where I bumped into Kingsley. He asked me to join the Auror Department, he said that they needed me since they were lacking in numbers. To be honest I was tempted but then I remembered that they were under the control of Dawlish and what they had down to Luna's father. I told him that I could not join since I now had Ollie to look after. However he said it was my duty to help the wizarding world and we got into an argument because I stated that I had already sacrificed so much for the greater good of the magical world. I was not going to let the ministry take any more away from me. My Parents had been murdered, I had had a miserable childhood, both my Godfather and mentor had been killed before my eyes and I had just spent a year on the run before killing the darkest wizard of all time. I was not going to let the Ministry, the institution which had taken so much away from me, take over my life and take me away from my daughter, who needed me.'

'What happened after that?' Ginny asked, stepping closer to Harry and reaching out to hold his hand.

'Kingsley said that I was letting everyone down since I was expected to lead the wizarding world into a new age, not play Daddy to, I quote, an illegitimate dark brat'

'He said that about Ollie!' Ginny said, absolutely outraged 'but he knew who her father was, he worked alongside Sirius in the order!'

'I have no idea what was going through Kingsley's mind at that time' Harry replied 'I guess he was just stressed since he had just been elected Minister for magic'

'But that's not a reason to make such a demand of you. I guess you're quite lucky not joining the Ministry, everybody I know seems to hate working there. Ron hates it; Dad is thinking about taking early retirement, Hermione resigned and even Percy is thinking about revolting!'

'Susan said it was horrible' Harry said. 'Kingsley basically told me that I was not welcome in the country which meant that I had to go and everytime I wanted to see you or Ron or Hermione I had to sneak back in, usually using Muggle forms of transport to be undetected'

Ginny took another step closer to Harry and gave him a hug, grateful he had finally opened up to her. 'Thank you for telling me this' she whispered 'I'm sorry I was so mad at you'

'You had every right to be angry' Harry replied

'No I didn't' she said pulling out of the hug and looking at him crossly. 'Please stop blaming yourself for everything Harry. I am at fault as well, I should be apologising to you, I'm sorry'

Harry pulled her back into his arms and kissed the top of her head. 'We're good now?'

'Yeah, we're good' Ginny replied snuggling into his arms. She had missed his comforting embrace so much; it felt so right to be in his arms. Holding hands they continued to walk across the barren field until they reached the top of the hill. 'Where are we?' Ginny asked looking out across the vista, the sun breaking through the clouds and landing on some hills in the distance.

'Look over there' Harry replied, pointing to a rather grand looking house in the distance. 'That's Potter House'

'Your home?'

'My ancestral home' Harry replied 'it's been in the family for hundreds of years but I'm renovating it at the moment in the hope that if everything goes well in the trial Ollie and I could move in. She loves her house in Italy and her room in Grimmauld Place but I think if she stays at Hogwarts she would want to closer to her friends.'

'You said if all goes well?' Ginny asked 'Don't you think it will, is there something else that you're not telling me Harry?'

'I hope everything goes well' he sighed 'but this is Susan's toughest case yet and I have know I idea how she is going to do it, if she wasn't family, I don't think she would've accepted it. I'm trying to be optimistic for Ollie's sake, but no matter how much evidence and reasons Susan can put before Wizengamot in my defence, I still killed Dawlish and helped mastermind the break-ins into Gringotts and the Ministry'

'But it was Gabrielle and Dennis who actually broke in...'

'...And I was the one who gave them the orders to do so' Harry replied. 'Besides they have their whole married lives ahead of them and I couldn't bear to see them punished for things which I'm to blame for'

'What about Ollie?'

'If the worst come to the worst, I know she is loved and will be looked after. She has Luna and the Lupins, who are all her family.'

'What about me?' Ginny whispered, turning to look up at Harry. Her big brown eyes, filled with love. 'What about me?'

'I just want you to know that whatever happens, I love you' Harry replied, finally telling Ginny what he felt about her 'I love you'

At those words, Ginny launched herself at Harry, pulling him close to her, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him with all the passion she had for him. It was better than their first kiss in the common room, or the one in her bedroom, it was better than the one they had shared on the sofa at the Burrow, it was amazing and suddenly she felt whole. 'I love you too' she replied resting her forehead against his 'I don't want you to go away again, you can't go away now. Not now I've just got you back'

Harry hugged Ginny tightly 'we're going to get through this' he said.

'Together' she added burying herself into his arms and closing her eyes.

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><p><strong>Hi I hope you enjoyed this chapter!<strong>

**Thank you to everyone who has been reading and reviewing. I can't believe that I am nearly at 100 reviews! Please review at help me get over the 100 mark**

**Until next week! (_unless I drown in the amount of history essays and science tests my teachers are giving me at the moment!)_**

**Cherry :) x  
><strong>


	26. Chapter 25

Ollie was brushing her hair violently, 'Ahhh!' she screamed, throwing down her brush in frustration, onto the bed.

'Hey, what's the matter?' Heather asked, coming up behind Ollie

'My hair!' Ollie moaned, pointing towards the tangled black mess on her head. 'It's the trial today and I'm meant to look smart and respectable and it looks like I've been through a hedge backwards!'

Heather picked up Ollie's discarded hairbrush and started to brush her friend's hair gently and slowly brushing out the tangles. The brushing seemed to calm Ollie down.

'It's going to be alright' Heather said putting down the brush, having managed to tame Ollie's unruly curls.

'Ooh, let me help' came Phoenix's eager voice, noticing the two girls sitting on the four poster bed. She sat down next to Heather, behind Ollie and began to play with Ollie's hair. Methodically Phoenix began to weave Ollie's black hair into a French plait.

'You've worked an absolute miracle!' Ollie exclaimed, once Phee had finished, standing up to admire her friend's handiwork.

Suddenly Maisie, another one of her classmates, stuck her head around the dormitory door and told Ollie that Teddy Lupin was waiting in the common room and needed to speak to her. Ollie stood up, smoothed out her shirt and picked up her wand. She checked to see if her falcon broach was straight and that she had her lucky pendent around her neck before heading towards the door.

'Good luck' Heather whispered, giving Ollie a hug

'You'll be fine' Phoenix added as Ollie left the safety of her dormitory and entered the mad common room.

'Dad told me to tell you that McGonagall told him that Aunt Cissa has arrived and is waiting in her office' Teddy said, over the din if the loud common room as the rest of the house got ready for the quidditch match.

'Narcissa?'

'I guess she's the one taking you to the Ministry' Teddy suggested before Ollie ran out of the common room to the Headmistress' office. She was able to get into McGonagall's office using the same password Gabby had used last time.

'Sorry I'm late' she said as she burst into the office.

'Don't worry Miss Potter, you're quite alright for time' McGonagall stated calmly as Narcissa walked over to the fourteen year old girl.

'Well, don't you scrub up nicely' she remarked, tucking a stray stand of curl behind Ollie's ear and straightening the falcon broach which had become wonky 'That's better'

'What are you doing here?' Ollie asked, before realising she sounded rude 'I mean, I just wasn't expecting you' she added hastily.

'It's ok dear' Cissa replied 'Andromeda was going to come and get you but she was running late, so will be meeting us at the Ministry and Nymphadora is busy sorting out the Aurors. Your Godmother was also planning on coming but got stuck with the Weasleys'

Cissa's explanation was cut short by a McGonagall gesturing towards the clock on the wall. Narcissa took the hint and lead Ollie over to the fireplace where, via the floo network they were transported into the Atrium at the Ministry.

Ollie picked herself up from the tiled floor of the atrium after she had fallen out of the fireplace and found herself staring at an amazing gold fountain of a Phoenix rising from the flames. She spotted Andromeda standing at the base of it.

'Hello Ollie' Nandy said, giving her adopted granddaughter a hug 'all set?'

Ollie just shrugged; she really did not know what was going to happen inside that courtroom besides the fact that Susan, who was defending her father and whoever was prosecuting him would ask her questions.

'Dora's going to meet us on level 10' Nandy added as they walked towards the lifts, the pair of Black sisters attracting quite a lot of attention from curious onlookers.

They were pushed to the back of the lift as more ministry employees piled in. One man was reading the Daily Prophet which Ollie noticed had a picture of her father being brought to the Ministry on the front page.

Finally they arrived at level 10 having been thrown side to side by the manic lifts. Slightly unsteady, Ollie walked out of the lift, quite dizzy from the ordeal. She was greeted by a woman with chocolate brown hair gently curled down to her waist, framing her heart shaped face. She was also wearing a set of Auror robes.

'Wotcher Ollie' the woman said

'Aunt Dora, is that you?' Ollie asked in disbelief, staring at the woman.

'What do you think?' Tonks asked, giving a little twirl 'you can see why I normally keep my hair short and pink?'

'Wow Andy, that's scary' Narcissa remarked to her sister, as they joined Ollie and Tonks

'I know' Andromeda replied looking at her daughter, it was really rare that she ever saw her daughter's real appearance. It could be said that Andromeda looked like her late older sister Bellatrix, only softer. Well Tonks was like a blurred version of her mother, which meant that there was a big family resemblance, though Tonks had inherited her muggleborn father's brown eyes instead of the haughty Black grey.

'Dora, why are you like this?' Ollie asked, gesturing to Tonk's appearance.

'Well, it was Gabby's idea' Tonks replied as she started to lead them towards the courtroom. 'we need to make an impression on Wizengamot as they enter and the delegation from the ministry so they don't underestimate us'

'I must say this Gabby knows what she is talking about' Narcissa whispered as members of the ministry turned to look at their little group as they walked along the corridor. Ollie began to look down, embarrassed by all these strangers' curious stares.

'Ollie, stand up straight and look up' Andromeda hissed. 'Walk with confidence, you are a Potter and a Black, walk with pride. You need to be strong, ignore the stares, you are above all of them, and they are just nosy busy bodies who want to know what's going on'

With Nandy's words of wisdom and encouragement, Ollie began to walk next to her Aunt Dora more confidently. She looked up and smiled because up ahead she could see that the Weasleys were here.

Molly Weasley looked up as a hush descended on the corridor. She wondered who everyone was looking at until she caught sight of four people walking towards the entrance to the court room, where they had all gathered, waiting for the start of the trial. The blonde haired woman was looking ahead imperiously, the brown haired lady on the right of the small black haired girl was whispering something in the girl's ear before adopting the same expression as the blonde. The girl then looked straight ahead holding on tightly to the other brunette's hand, who had a calm expression of authority on her face.

'Merlin's beard, it can't be!' Molly heard her husband next to her exclaim in amazement. Then the girl with black hair gave Molly a small smile and she finally realised who it was. It was Ollie walking along side Narcissa Malfoy, Andromeda Tonks and what must be Nymphadora.

It was a sight to see, the last remaining members of the noble and most ancient house of Black walking side by side. Molly did not know how she failed to spot the resemblance between Ollie and that family as it was now so clear to see.

'Hi Mrs Weasley' Ollie said smiling at Molly

'Hello Ollie' she replied

'You ok, Kitten?' Luna asked coming over to greet her Goddaughter

'I'm fine Luna'

'I'm sorry I was not there this morning but I was stuck with Ginny at the Burrow' and she gestured towards the red haired woman who was standing over by Ron and Hermione. 'She has been absolutely distraught since the Aurors came to take Harry yesterday' Luna added. Ollie looked closer at Ginny, she looked pale with puffy red rimmed eyes, highlighting that she had been crying a lot recently.

'How are things between Ginny and Dad?' Ollie asked quietly

'I think they have sorted out their differences' Luna replied evasively

'Luna!' Ollie said in frustration; wanting to know what happened please tell me!'

'Ollie now is not the time'

'So what is going on between you and Professor Longbottom?' Ollie asked mischievously, trying to take her mind off the trial. However, Luna's reply was cut off by the courtroom door opening and Percy Weasley appearing.

'Ladies and Gentlemen, you may now proceed into the court room' he announced pompously. Immediately there was a great surge towards the door.

'How's Dad?' Ollie asked Percy as he held the door open and the wizards and witches piled in.

'Harry's ok, I guess' he replied. 'The ministry tried to get information out of him yesterday after he was brought and it took Tonks storming down to the cells to get them to stop interrogating Harry. He would not say anything though, stayed silent the entire time. This morning he asked me to give this to you' and Percy handed Ollie a charm bracelet which had a small key and a wooden deer on it.

Ollie looked down at the bracelet; it was to be used in case of an emergency since it contained a copy of the key to the Potter family vault and the wooden deer was an emergency porkey, which would take her to a safe location. Ollie just guessed that her Dad was being paranoid.

Tonks kissed the top Ollie's head before walking into the courtroom to join the other members of the Auror department. Andromeda led Ollie up to a seat in the octagonal court room, where she sat next to Luna and Gabby. Andromeda then left her in their care as she went to take up the Black family seat in Wizengamot. Ollie watched as Nandy made her way across the room, stuffling along the row until she sat next to Narcissa and Draco who was in the Malfoy seat. They had all donned the burgundy coloured Wizengamot robes.

Susan had once tried to explain to Ollie how Wizengamot was formed. She said that there were some seats that people were elected to, some seats that were appointed and then some seats that were family seats and were passed down the generations until the line died out

Ollie looked around, she spotted Mr Weasley and his oldest son Bill up there among the other members of Wizengamot, while Mrs Weasley, Hermione, Ginny and the rest of the Weasleys were sitting up in the spectator seats since they had come to give Harry some moral support. She saw Aunt Dora and her Dad's old friend Ron, amongst the other Aurors, decked out in their ceremonial scarlet robes. This trial was obviously a big deal. Ollie also scanned the room looking out for Susan who was defending her father.

'Where's Susan?' she whispered to Gabby along the bench.

'Don't worry, she's here' Gabby replied 'she just wants to make and entrance'

'Does it have to this dramatic?' Ollie remarked referring to all the members of the Black family coming together and now Susan arriving 'late'

'Ollie, we want the ministry to feel overconfident, especially the minister' Gabby replied, gesturing to Kingsley Shaklebolt, who was sitting on his perch, smirking at Harry's lack of defence. Ollie wondered how this man had gone from being a respected war hero and honourable Auror. Maybe it was power that turned him into a mean egotistical Minister for Magic.

Ollie looked at Luna to the left of her, wondering what she made of the situation and the theatre of everything. She also wondered why Susan needed Luna as a witness. She looked down at her watch, wondering when the trial was going to start.

'Patience Ollie' Luna said, putting a calming hand on the girl's shoulder as she began to fidget with impatience. 'It's nearly time' she said before returning to stare serenely at the celing as if nothing was wrong.

Ollie turned to look back at Gabby and Dennis who were sitting close together, their hand intertwined. Their heads were bend as the whispered reassuring words to each other. Gabby was like Draco's wife Astoria, in the fact that to Ollie she always seemed to dressed immaculately, with not a single hair out of place, however, though she still looked perfect, today she looked really nervous.

Ollie began to play with the pendent around her neck, she twisted it nervously round her finger, feeling the contrasting textures of the smooth silver compared to the rough crystal which was in the middle. She prayed that everything was going to be ok. Everyone kept on telling her that everything was going to be ok, but she could sense that they were as nervous as she was. Her Dad had tried to reassure her but she knew what a tough case this was going to be to win. Her Dad had killed Dawlish, head of the Auror Department, whether t was deliberate of accidental, she did not know. Her dad did not tell her what went happened on missions.

As Ollie worried what would happen to her if her Dad was sentenced to prison, the court room door opened. She watched as her Dad was led into the courtroom by some members of law enforcement. He was put into the old wooden chair in the centre of the vast room. Ollie let out a gasp as iron chains sprung up out of the chair and chained her father to it, clasping his wrists and ankles.

Kingsley banned his hammer to gain everyone's attention to start the proceedings. 'Trail of the 17th January' he said in his measured booming voice 'to investigate the murder of John Dawlish, killed by Harry James Potter. Interrogators: Kingsley Shaklebolt, Minister for magic, Otto McIrish, Acting head of the Auror department, Percy Ignatius Weasley, Senior under secretary to the minister, court scribe Rose Christine Zeller-'

'-For the defence: Susan Amelia Edna Bones'

As a loud gasp was emitted by several members of Wizengamot as they looked at the auburn haired witch, Ollie let out a sigh of relief, Susan was here and the trial as about to begin.

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><p><strong>A big big thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I woke up last Friday to find that I had over 100 REVIEWS! I was so happy, you guys are amazing and have really inspired me to write this week even though I have had a lot of work. Sorry this one was mainly a filler chapter but the trial starts properly next week!<strong>

**All the best**

_Cherry :) xx_


	27. Chapter 26

**Hi! Just a quick author's note. Thanks so much for all the reviews this week! I had an anonymous reviewer who commented that they liked the story but hated the cliff hangers. I'm really sorry about that, but sometimes you just can't resist the temptation to leave the reader hanging! Anyway, I'm just going to warn you that this trial is spread over two chapters. It could be worse, the trial in to Kill a Mockingbird is spread over something like five! **

**You know as a writer, you sometimes have a chapter that you dread writing, but is really important to the plot. Well this was my 'demon' chapter and as I was writng it I was asking myself why I had written a trial into the plot! I know nothing about law or the legal system or how a trial works in general so please just take this as a fictional magic trial. I hope you enjoy this chapter despite the fact it is probably full of rubbish and let me know what you think!**

**I should probably stop waffling now ~ Cherry :) x  
><strong>

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><p>Harry stood outside courtroom ten waiting for the people form magical law enforcement to take him in. He could still feel the veritaserum in his mouth. He had been asked to drink the truth potion before he was brought up to the court room. Suddenly he was pushed forward into the courtroom, a blinding white light hitting him as he went through the big wooden doors from the dark corridor into the big bright courtroom.<p>

He could see all the members of Wizengamot had donned their plum coloured robes, while the ministry employees, apart from the Aurors, who were robed in scarlet, were dressed in black. Feeling an overwhelming sense of déjà vu, he sat down in the wooden seat in the centre of the courtroom however, unlike last time, the chains sprung up from the sides and chained him to the chair.

He looked around the courtroom as Kingsley picked up the hammer and called the court to order. He could see Ollie sitting between Gabby and Luna on the witness' bench. She looked worried and was glancing around the room nervously. Then suddenly he realised why. Susan was not there yet. A loud banging sound filed the room, cutting through Harry's anxious thoughts as the Minister began the proceedings.

'Trial of the 17th January' he said in his booming voice 'to investigate the murder of John Dawlish, killed by Harry James Potter. Interrogators: Kingsley Shaklebolt, Minister for magic, Otto McIrish, Assistant head of the Auror department, Percy Ignatius Weasley, Senior under secretary to the minister, court scribe Rose Christine Zeller-'

'-For the defence: Susan Amelia Bones'

Harry turned around sharply and let out a huge sigh of relief, he had had absolute faith in Susan turning up but it was nice that she was actually here. Several members of wizengamot gasped loudly at the auburn haired witch's dramatic entrance. Susan walked confidently into the room, her high heels making a clicking noises as she walked across the wooden floor to stand behind Harry's chair.

Ollie watched as the first part of the trial began. Kingsley started to question her father, asking him his name, where he lived and what his occupation was. She had smiled at the look on Kingsley's face when her father had replied with Dark wizard catcher and dark magic investigator at the IDA. Then she had listened as the junior Auror, Johnson, recounted what had happened the night Dawlish as found, since he was the first person to find him, before alerting his superiors.

'How did you find him?' Susan had asked once he had finished recounting what he had seen and the Minister had not felt the need to ask any more questions.

'In a cave on the mountainside' he replied

'You said he was alive when you found him and that your supervisors Weasley and Tonks talked to him, do you know what he said?'

'He said that Potter had done this to him'

'Did he say anything else?'

Johnson was silent for a moment trying to remember the conversation he had overheard in the cave. 'He mentioned something about something called Project Runespore, he said it was all over, but he was probably losing it as he died soon after' he finally replied.

'Well that is where you are wrong' Susan replied addressing the whole court. 'Project Runespore is at the heart of the matter'

Kingsley banged his hammer. 'Ms Bones this is a trial into the murder of John Dawlish, not some mysterious project'

'Please bear with me Minister' Susan insisted 'but Dawlish's death was a consequence of many events all entwined with project Runespore'

'Very well, proceed' Kingsley replied reluctantly.

Ollie watched now as her dads told his side of the story. He spoke of how he had been following Rookwood and Carrow's path of destruction throughout Europe until they had tricked him, captured him, and locked him away as a prisoner without him knowing why. Finally after around a month in captivity he was taken to meet the leader of project Runespore, Dolores Umbridge. Ollie along with everyone else in the court room, were horrified when Harry recounted what Umbridge had told him about the potion and what it would do to the wizarding world. He described how he was able to free himself and fight, killing Carrow and Rookwood in the process. Harry finished by telling the court how Dawlish had attacked him after Umbridge had fallen off the mountainside and how in self defence as a knife had been pushed against his throat be had flung Dawlish, with the help of some accidental magic into the cove wall. The court room was silent as he finished his tale everyone was staring at him in disbelief.

'Mr Potter, you mean to suggest that John Dawlish, the head of the Auror department, was corrupt and was working for a secret organisation?' McIrish asked.

'Yes' Harry replied firmly.

The court room erupted. 'But that is preposterous!' Kingsley exclaimed

'Minister, with the permission of Wizengamot, can we show you our finding?' Susan asked

Several members of Wizengamot nodded, wanting to know everything.

'Very well, continue' Kingsley said wearily, banging his hammer down to call the court to order.

Ollie watched as Luna was summoned to give evidence, she was eager to find out what part her godmother had played in this whole affair. She thought that Luna just went around the world looking for strange magical creatures.

'Name' McIrish asked, as Zeller, the court scribe, continued to write everything down.

'Luna Arielle Lovegood' Luna replied, standing up and facing the court.

'Residence'

'12c Grimmauld Place'

'Please begin'

The court listened attentively as Luna described some of her early travels with Harry and she told them about Harry's duels with Goyle and Alecto Carrow. 'We were in Italy where we were living and were having a great day by the lake' Luna told the court. 'Harry was trying to teach Ollie how to swim and I was looking out for the Italian merpeople when Alecto arrived. Harry picked up Ollie, before running onto the shore and giving her to me to protect, before standing in front of us ready to defend. There was a short duel which ended with one Alecto's creative spells backfiring.'

'As you can see Minister' Susan said after Luna had finished 'Mr Potter tried everything to kill these Death Eaters and it was errors on their parts which killed them.

'I would like to question Miss Lovegood for a moment' Kingsley stated. 'Why sis you leave the country with Mr Potter after the war?' he asked looking down at the blond haired witch.

'My father was killed by Death Eaters on his release from Azkaban' Luna replied, looking up and glaring at the minister 'and you and your new, wonderful ministry, did nothing about it'

'And what is your relationship with Mr Potter?'

'This has nothing to do with the case' Susan interjected

'Just answer the question Miss Lovegood' Kingsley overruled

'Harry has been nothing but an extremely close, supportive friend over the years. I am Godmother to his daughter and have helped raise her over the years'

'Nothing else?'

What are you implying Minister?'

'Only that I was wondering if Mr Potter was the father of your child' the minister replied.

'No, he is not' Luna remarked strongly. 'Harry and I are like brother and sister and anyway how could he be the father when he told you that he has been away since July and I last saw him in June'

'Luna then returned to the Witness' bench, she was visibly shaking though Ollie could not tell whether it was from fear or anger. She listened began to speak again. Susan spoke of how they had reason to believe that the Organisation of the Three-headed Snake was not formed until 2004 when Dolores Umbridge was released from Azkaban on the orders of John Dawlish. All the former Death Eaters before 2004 had not worn the badge but after most had. It was also after 2004 when the attacks on half breeds and muggleborns had increased. As Susan spoke Ollie began to piece together things in her head, there had been the attack on Madame Maxine, headmistress of Beaubatons, when her Dad had been teaching there and there had also been the attacks on the veela communities which included the killing of Gabby's parents. Then Ollie realised Egypt would be next.

Ollie's heart rate increased, it was now beating a loud tattoo against her ribcage. She wondered why Fleur had not been asked to tell the court what happened, but then she remembered that Fleur had been kept mostly in the dark as to what happened and she been whisked away by her husband Bill before anything really happened. Ollie then realised that everyone's eyes had turned to look at her expectantly. Slowly she walked down into the centre of the courtroom, her dad have an encouraging smile as she stood in front of the Minister of Magic and the whole of Wizengamot.

'Name' McIrish asked

'Katarina Olwen Molly Potter'

'Residence'

'Umm' Ollie hesitated, it was such a simple question but she did not know how to answer it. She was currently staying at the Burrow and had before she went to Hogwarts she was living in Italy. 'La casa di Cielo' she answered 'Lake Garda, Italy'. As the court scribe hastily scribbled everything down, McIrish gave Ollie a nod to start describing what happened in Egypt.

'It was the Easter holidays at Beaubatons and Dad decided to take me on holiday' she began. 'It was just the two of us and it was his way from making up the fact that I had not seen much of him since he was teaching at the school and I was being looked after by Luna. He said that he was taking me to Egypt because it had a rich magical history and he thought it would be fun to explore some of the old tombs. To be honest I was not really looking forward to that part but to spending time with my Papa' Ollie paused to collect her thoughts before continuing.

'The first days were fine, exploring the Pyramids of Giza near the capital Cairo before sailing down the Nile. It was when we entered the Valley of the Kings everything went wrong. I don't remember much' Ollie admitted looking down 'but I remember dark figures and lots of spells. Dad had told me to run as he tried to fight them all off. I ran as fast as I could across the sand but finally this tall dark man caught up with me. I saw a snake pinned onto this robes, a flash of light and the next thing I knew, I woke up in a dark cell. I don't think I have been so scared since I am not very good with enclosed spaces and like to be free.'

'The people, who captured me, told me that they needed me to get to my father but I never found out why. I don't know how long I was in that cell, it felt like weeks but it was probably a matter o days in the darkness. One thing that helped me was the kind French Lady in the cell opposite me. I never saw her face or found out her name but she helped me by making me feel less alone. She told me about how her husband was a curse breaker and that was why they were in Egypt and how she had three small children who were being looked after by their Grandmother. She also told me about her younger sister, whom she didn't see very often, and how worried she was about her wondering if they had killed her yet. I thought that they would use her as a hostage and demand a ransom to gain money but she told me that they would never keep her kind hostage. I could never figure out what she meant by that until I met her again recently.'

'Several days into my capture there was an explosion which shook the whole building. I was trapped in as rubble began to fall. There was lots of shouting and fighting. Suddenly a man came a whisked the kind woman opposite me away, leaving me hiding in the corner of my cell. I cried out for help, hoping my Papa would hear me and save me as well but instead there was a loud crash and a strange man entered my cell. It was the same man who had kidnapped me. He picked me up by the collar of my shirt and held it wand to my throat. Then Dad burst in after him. They exchanged words which I did not hear because I was so scared before there was another loud bang. The man holding me got distracted and dropped me onto the floor, which knocked me out. I woke up several days later in a muggle hospital'

'And that is everything that happened?' McIrish asked

'Yes' Ollie replied, glad it was all over.

'You don't know what happened to the man or who he was?' the Minister asked.

'I later found out he was the former Death Eater and Azkaban inmate Antonin Dolohov' Ollie replied 'and Dad killed him because he hurt me'

'You said that you've only recently worked out what the French lady meant, can you elaborate on that? McIrish asked, wanting to clear up that part of the story.

'I met her again recently' Ollie stated. 'The lady was Fleur Weasley, formally Delacour, the triwizard champion who also happens to be part veela. As you now know, veelas and other half-breeds were being targeted at the time of my kidnapping'

'Did you have any knowledge of what your father's latest mission entailed?' McIrish asked.

'He told me he had to go away on an mission since these where the last ones left and he promised he would come home afterwards' Ollie replied.

The Minister looked up wanting to ask another question but Percy Weasley got there first. 'Miss Potter, just to clarify, in your father's statement he mentioned that he can do wandless magic, is this true and does he use it a lot?'

'My Dad is able to do some wandless magic' she replied 'though it drains a lot of his magical energy so it is better for him to use a wand. If he is being attacked he can use it but it is often wilder and more like accidental magic'

'Very well Miss Potter, once last question' Kingsley said. 'Do you think your father; Mr Potter is a good father?'

'Minister, that question is hardly-'Susan's objection was silenced by Kingsley's stern glare in the auburn haired witch's direction.

'Please just answer the question'

'My father is the best father I could have ever wished for' Ollie replied proudly, looking straight up at Kingsley as if to dare him to challenge her.

'Even though he has put you in situations of danger and left you in another person's care, for months on end?'

'He loves me' she replied 'and he has always tried to keep me safe'

'You are adopted Miss Potter' Kingsley stated

'Yes'

'Can you tell us your birth name?'

'Minister-'again Susan's objections were silenced.

Ollie took a deep breath before standing up straight, shoulder back and looking up and Kingsley with the falcon broach pined on her chest, shining proudly. He was not going to beat her.

'I was born Katarina Cecilia of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.'


	28. Chapter 27

Silence filled the octagonal courtroom.

'Please could you repeat that?' McIrish asked finally.

'I was born Katarina Cecilia Black' Ollie stated. 'My father was Sirius Black'

'Sirius Black, as in the mass murderer?'

'No, Sirius Black, the innocent man who was unjustly locked up in Azkaban without a trial' she replied staring at the stupid Auror, her violet eyes blazing.

'And who was your mother? Kingsley asked

'As you already know Minister, from when my father filled in the adoption papers, I don't know who my mother was' she retorted.

As Ollie made her way back her seat, there was a lot of noise as people discussed the latest development in this case. She breathed a huge sigh of relief, her secret was now out in the open and by this evening everyone would know. She could see representatives from the press scribbling down everything that was happening from where they sat, high up in the stands. Ollie just hoped that her friends would not think badly of her.

The rest of the trial passed in a blur to Ollie, she tried to keep up as Gabby and Dennis were questioned. She had never realised how deeply involved in the IDA they were. As Susan presented the information, the evidence condemning Dawlish, loads of technical legal jargon was being thrown around as Wizengamot decided what to do about the fact that this information had mainly come from breaking in to various organisations, including the Ministry of Magic'

'They should be punished for breaking in' the Minister had stated firmly.

'Miss Delacour and Mr Creevey are under the protection international law, Minister' Susan shot back. 'They are members of the IDA and if you would remember the international treaty of 1945'. The Minister looked towards the legal advisor in Wizengamot who nodded his head in agreement to what Susan had been saying. 'Maybe it just shows how lack your security is?' Susan suggested to the now fuming minister.

Kingsley Shacklebolt was annoyed, everything was going wrong and he could not control it. For the first time in eleven years it felt like his grip on the Ministry of Magic was slipping. When he had first became Minister of Magic, he was only interim, the emergency replacement for the imperiorised Pius Thickness, who had been killed in battle. However in the years after he had been formally elected, he had grown more and more found of the power. For the first time in his working life he was not answerable to anyone apart from himself, he was boss. He could make all the important decisions and call the shots.

He had noticed that several old friends whom he had worked with during the war were now pulling away but he had turned blind eye to their discontent. He had fought in the war, both of them and he knew what was best, he had given up everything to help change the Wizarding world, more than anyone else. Kingsley knew that his second term as Minister was coming to an end, but he could not trust anyone with the job.

Kingsley turned his attention back to Harry Potter, whose trial he was presiding over. Harry had been the hope of the magic world during the war. The fate of the wizarding world had rested on his shoulders. However after the war, he had left everyone else to do all the clearing up, running away from his duty to the magic world. Harry had adopted a child from questionable origins and had joined the IDA. Kingsley thought it was a bit hypocritical that Harry had turned down his offer of a place in the Auror Department because he had to look after the child, but had then gone and joined the IDA instead. He looked at the man in question with a smirk. Even if Harry was declared innocent, Kingsley admitted that he did have quite a strong case; he would not be able to rejoin the IDA because now everyone knew about his involvement in the organisations, which was very secretive about its members.

The whole thing with Dawlish was rather embarrassing he mused, as Amelia Bones' niece reiterated her previous statements about how Harry had killed Dawlish for a good reason, he had acted in self defence and it was for the good of the wizarding world that he had overcome this threat. Kingsley knew that he would not be able to cover up how Dawlish had been corrupt and there would probably be calls for a full blown investigation. He sighed; he could already hear the public's cries for his resignation. He looked over at his Under Secretary, Percy Weasley, who was following the proceedings with his full attention. That boy was very ambitious and Kingsley could sense that the days in his office were numbered.

Hermione looked down at Harry, who was staring at a speck on the floor of the courtroom. After living with him at school and a tent for nearly seven years, she could recognise that this was a sign of how nervous he was, despite how outwardly positive he had been before the trial. Ginny, who was sitting next to her, had her hands clasped tightly together on her lap and was, staring at Harry, whilst it sounded like Fleur, in the row behind, was muttering French prayers under her breath.

Hermione had been able to follow, after all her years working in magic law at the Ministry, most of the legal technicalities Susan and McIrish had been exchanging, though some she had never heard of. She looked over at the Minister, who was sitting quietly, following the heated debate. She could see from his body language that he knew that Harry would probably win this case and when news of Dawlish's corruption spread he could predict that the wizarding world would be in uproar, demanding an investigation and his resignation.

At the beginning, after the war, she along with most of the people who had fought in the war, had supported Kingsley as he had been made emergency minister and had even voted for him when the proper election came around. At first it looked like a golden new age, with more equality and fairness in the magic world. However that dream was shattered as several events happened.

It had been a shock to many people working at the ministry when Kingsley appointed John Dawlish as the head of the Auror Department after the war. Many people had expected it to be Tonks, who had been an important member of the department and had worked closely alongside Kingsley in both the Ministry as an Auror, and the Order of the Phoenix.

Many people had speculated it was because she was still young and a new mother, whom Kingsley thought would not be able to commit to the Auror department fully. There had also been the unspoken reason that it was because she had married a werewolf, and this had shocked many of the higher up prejudiced members of the Ministry, who were Kingsley's new advisors. However everyone had wanted to know hoe Dawlish had managed to hang onto his job and be promoted, after he had been so eager to help the Death Eaters and snatchers hunt Muggleborns. He had not even fought in the Battle of Hogwarts.

When they were trying to find new recruits for the Auror department, to replenish the dilapidated number, they had recruited several of the older members of Dumbledore's Army. Ron, Neville, Terry and Hannah had all joined but Lavender, who had the same qualifications and experience as the others, had been refused entry.

Hermione still remembered sitting next to a sobbing Lavender when she heard the news. Lavender had just been coming to terms with her scars and new wolfish qualities, with the help of Remus and Bill, when she had received this crushing letter for Dawlish. In the letter he had stated that she had been rejected because they were concerned about her health (she had been cleared by St Mungo's). Everyone could sense it was because she was now part werewolf. Lavender had been so upset because she was worried about being ostracised by society as a result of her scars, and this had come as a fatal blow to her confidence.

Hermione along with several other old school friends had helped Lavender set up and organisation which dealt with magical civil rights and Lavender was now enjoying helping all the children who had been affected by Fernier Greyback. When Hermione, taking a leaf from Susan's book, resigned from the Ministry of magic, after listening to her colleagues' sexist comments for far too long and setting her infamous birds on the ministry, she had joined Lavender, working to improving elfish rights and working conditions.

Fleur was watching the proceedings with mixed feelings. On the one hand she was proud of her little sister for doing something with her life, but on the other she angry that Gabrielle had not been honest with her and she worried about what might happen. She looked down at her little sister standing in the middle of the courtroom, explaining to the court what she had been doing at in the IDA. Fleur could not believe this was the same girl that ten years ago was very shy and quiet around strangers and could not speak a word of English.

Gabby spoke of why they had broken repeatedly into Gringotts, to check on Dawlish's accounts and how their infiltration of the Bulgarian embassy in Paris had lead to the capture of Rodolphus Lestrange.

Fleur then watched as Dennis, Gabrielle's fiancé was questioned by the interrogators. He explained how they were able tot get into Gringotts and the Ministry of Magic, using Muggle technology which he had adapted.

'But I want to know is why you needed to break into the head of the Auror Department's office in the first place?' McIrish asked.

'We had grown even more suspicious of Dawlish, especially since Harry had been gone for longer than usual, so after consulting the notes and instructions that Harry had left behind, we broke in and placed hidden cameras in the office. It was fortunate that we actually did this because this is how we found out Harry had been taken in the first place.'

'And how were you able to rescue Mr Potter before the Aurors arrived?' McIrish asked

'Harry called for his house elf Kreacher, just before he fell into unconsciousness. Kreacher, like any faithful house elf apparated to his master's side, to discover the state Harry was in. Kreacher then came and alerted Gabby and I, who came and took him to St Mungo's.

Kingsley then, once Dennis had returned to his seat and Susan had concluded Harry's defence, banged his hammer, announcing that there would be a short break while Wizengamot decided on the verdict of this case. Everyone accept Wizengamot, was ushered out of the courtroom, back out into the corridor, whilst the members made their individual decisions.

Ollie found herself on the receiving end of many hugs as she left the courtroom. There had been Luna's comforting, protective arm around her, shielding her from the curious gaze of several ministry workers, Mrs Weasley bone crushing hung and exclamation about how brave she was and how much she looked like Sirius and Susan's hug of reassurance, telling Ollie that she had done her best and now all they could do was wait.

Hermione was standing in the corner, catching up with Susan and analysing the case in great detail, while in the other corner Dennis and Gabby were wrapped in a loving embrace, as they contemplated what would happen next and what their futures would be like after the trial. They had received notification from the IDA and just as Harry had predicted, after this case they were being decommissioned because their jobs were no longer a secret.

Ollie was trapped in a very awkward conversation with Mrs Weasley, Ginny and Luna as they stood in the corridor. They were all nervous and were trying to make conversation to take their minds off the impending verdict.

Suddenly after what seemed like hours of waiting, the door of the courtroom opened and the figure of Percy Weasley appeared from behind the door.

'Ladies and Gentlemen, please return to your seats' he announced to the crowd.

After several reassuring squeezes and a hesitant hug from Ginny, Ollie was led back into the courtroom by Luna and sat on the witness' bench, with one hand holding Luna's and the other, clasping her lucky pendent around her neck.

The Minister banged his hammer, calling the court to order. 'Everyone who finds Mr Potter guilty of killing John Dawlish, please raise your hands' he told Wizengamot

Ollie watched in horror as most of the members of Wizengamot, including Mr Weasley, Nandy, Cissa and Draco, raised their hands. She let go of Luna's hand in shock and her hand reached for the bracelet her dad had given her, the one with the emergency porkey on it. She looked down at her Dad, wondering if she would have to actually use it. As if he sensed his daughter's anxious gaze, Harry turned to look up at Ollie and gave her a reassuring smile. She was fed up of all those false reassuring smiles she had been receiving. How could her dad so calm about this? He was now probably changed and then sent to Azkaban, for Merlin knows long and she would be practically orphaned again. Ollie looked over at Ginny, who was sitting next to her mother and Hermione. Ginny was currently sitting in a position which conveyed absolute shock, her hand over her mouth and her brown eyes wide in horror.

Ollie watched as Kingsley, lifted his hammer and was about to pass judgment on her father when, a small insignificant looking wizard sat in the middle of the wizengamot seats, stood up.

'Chief Warlock Vance, what would you like to add?' Kingsley asked impatiently, waiting to get this long tedious case over and done with.

'Though we have found Mr Potter guilty of the killing of John Dawlish, we believe that Mr Potter acted in self defence and had the best intentions of the wizarding community at heart. We therefore strongly suggest that Mr Potter be cleared of all charges and along with Miss Delacour and Mr Creevey help us launch a proper investigation into what really happened and all this shameful corruption which has been right under noses in your Ministry.' He said addressing the Minister of Magic. 'I think we should even thank Mr Potter, for helping to defeat all those dark wizards because who knows what would have happened if he had failed'

'All those in favour of Chief Warlock Vance's suggestion please raise your hands' Kingsley ordered.

Ollie watched in anticipation as the plum robed wizengamot members one by one all raised their hands. The Minister looked at all the raised hands before banging down his hammer for the final time 'Mr Potter is hereby cleared of all charges, you are free to go'

At that announcement the chains around Harry's wrists and ankles sprung back, freeing him from the chair.

Ollie could not contain her excitement and relief any longer. She jumped up from where she was sitting, pushing past everyone in her way as she run down towards her father. 'Papa!' she squealed as she launched herself had him, throwing her arms tightly around his waist, refusing to let him go. 'Papa, you're ok, you're coming home' she whispered into his robes.

Harry bent down and kissed his daughter's unruly curls, which had managed to escape from the French plait throughout the course of the day. 'I did promise you that I would come home' he replied.

Ollie after finally releasing her father, watched with amusement as Ginny approached her father uncertainly before being completely taken by surprise when he pulled her into a very passionate kiss, not caring that about half of the ministry was probably watching. Harry and Ginny finally broke apart as they realised that everyone was staring at them.

'Well it's about time' Ron called out, before being elbowed in the ribs by his wife.

Ginny blushed bright red whilst Harry looked down sheepishly as Ollie grabbed hold of his free hand. Together they walked out of the ministry, saying goodbye to various people on the way.

'Thank you so much Susan' Harry said to the auburn haired witch as they walked out of the Ministry.

'No problem Harry' she replied, fishing into her handbag to look at her mobile, now they were out of the range of magical interference. 'Oh, I've got a message from Dudley' she told Harry, looking at her texts. 'He wonders of you want to come over for dinner sometime next week, Emmy would love to see her Uncle Harry again and Petunia has been asking about you'

Harry pulled a face at the mention of his Aunt's name

'She's changed Harry' Susan stated 'It's like she's become a new woman ever since she divorced Vernon. She's not like she was when you were younger, I mean she has me as a daughter-in-law and we're actually on speaking terms!'

'Fine, next Wednesday?'

'I'll hold you to it' Susan replied before walking off in the opposite direction and disappearing.

'I'll see you soon' Luna said to Harry and Ollie before she went to hail a muggle cab, to take her back to Grimmauld place, since she was not allowed to apparate in her condition.

After they had watched Luna be driven away, Harry turned to his daughter. 'Come on, let's take you back to school, I'm sure you're dying to know who won the quidditch match' then he turned to Ginny 'are you coming with us?'

'You spend some time with Ollie, I'll see you back at the Burrow' the redhead replied. 'Mum's cooking a celebratory meal including a huge treacle tart' and she stood up on her tiptoes to give Harry a kiss on the cheek before ruffling Ollie's curls and disapparating.

Harry pulled Ollie into another big hug, before they to disapparated heading towards Hogwarts.

* * *

><p><strong>So what did you think, how bad was it?<strong>

**Please read and review!**

**All the best ~ Cherry :)xx**


	29. Epilogue

When she was younger, her sense of family, love, warmth and safety, came when she ran down the country lanes after school, to be greeted with a hug and a kiss by her godmother. When she was flung around in the air by her Dad when returned home from work and to be cuddled by him, as he read her a bedtime story and kissed her goodnight. Her family consisted of her Dad and Aunt Luna, with an extended family of the Lupins, Dennis and Gabby. Now everything had changed. Her family was now so much bigger.

Ollie sat amongst her classmates, as they sat outside at the memorial service for the 12th anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. When the news of Ollie's true parentage had been made public, by the publication of the outcome of her father's trial in the Evening Prophet, the students at the school and her friends had reacted in different ways. Phoenix, as a muggleborn, had no idea who Sirius Black was or what he had been accused of, so she did not know what all the fuss had been about. Some of the pupils, who could vaguely remember the terror that Sirius Black had caused when he escaped from Azkaban, looked at Ollie curiously with a certain edge of suspicion for the first couple of weeks after the trial, before it was all relatively forgotten. Jon and Heather did not seem to mind, and were more annoyed with Ollie for not telling them sooner.

Ollie watched as her father, stood up from his seat and walked up onto the dais at the front of the crowd and prepared to speak. The sun was setting behind him; the light dancing across the still great lake, as the sky was turning a pinky orange hue. She saw him clear his throat and look over to Ginny, who was sitting with the rest of the Weasley Clan. She could tell Ginny must've blown him a kiss or something because he blushed, before looking down and fumbling with his notes. Ollie thought that their relationship was very sweet and that Ginny was perfect for her Dad. After she had caught the red haired witch, sneaking out of the flat in the early hour of the morning, wearing something that looked suspiciously like one of her Dad's shirts, for the third time during the Easter Holidays, Ollie had told her Dad that he should just ask Ginny to move in with them, when they moved into Potter House at the beginning of the Summer holidays.

She could also spot Luna's blond head next to Ginny. Luna's arms were resting gently on her now enormous protruding bump. She was due any day now and during the Easter holidays; Ollie had helped her godmother decorate the baby's temporary nursery as Luna waited for her childhood home to be rebuilt. Luna had not heard anything from Rolf but her new relationship with Professor Longbottom, seemed to be going smoothly and she frequency helping him out in his greenhouse. Her paper on magical horses had been published, to great acclaim and to Ollie, Luna seemed the happiest she had ever been. Her eyes now sparkled when she smiled, no longer looking empty

Harry lifted up his wand to his throat; cast an amplifying spell before starting his speech.

'This day, 12 years ago, is considered by many as a turning point in their lives. It was then end of a chapter of a world plagued by the Dark Wizard, Lord Voldemort and the start of a new chapter in a more prosperous world. Some people found love that night' and he looked over had his best friends 'some people found family' and Harry looked at Narcissa who was sitting next to her son and Andromeda 'we all fought and some died'

'It was not just experienced wizards and witch's who died that day but school children, cut down in the prime of their lives. They had their whole futures ahead of them. Yes we should mourn them, but we should also celebrate their lives. They died knowing what they were committing themselves to. They were fighting for the same reasons as the rest of us, so the next generation could have a better future. A world was not threatened by an evil, megalomaniac and his prejudiced minions, a world without fear. All the men and woman who died throughout the war, in both wars, gave their tomorrow, so we could have our today.

'If my mother had not sacrificed herself, placed herself in front of Voldemort's killing curse intended for me and died, I would have died that fateful night in Godric's Hollow and her protection and love gave me the strength to go on and end Voldemort.'

'A wise man once told me that the ones we love never truly leave us and I was puzzled by this but then I realised that the ones who have passed on will always be with us, here' Harry pointed to his heart ' and here' and he pointed to his head. 'They exist in our memories and in our hearts and will never be forgotten. Don't pity the dead, he told me, pity the living. The ones we love had taken that final journey and are now at peace and we are the ones who still feel pain.'

'Maybe now is the time to stop living in the past and move into the future. Now we should step out of the shadow caused by the war, the dark blot on the page of our lives and step into a new age. Let us remember the ones who gave their lives in the best way possible –by living'

Harry then finished. He lifted his wand and shot a beam of pure white light into the now darkening sky. Soon everyone was standing by the lakeside following his example and beams of light, like millions of shooting stars, flew out across the sky as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, making way for the moon.

Ollie lifted her own wand and pointed it up at the sky. She watched as the light soared through the May evening sky and she was filled with hope. She looked to the war memorial standing proudly in the shadows to the left of her, and remembered her father, Sirius and her mysterious violet eyed mother who had died before she could have known them. Then Ollie looked over to the right, where her Dad was being engulfed in one of Mrs Weasley's trade mark bone crushing hugs before being warmed in a warm embrace by Ginny. She also spotted a blue haired Teddy, with his purple haired sister, standing next their Pink haired mother, who was holding onto her husband's hand tightly. Ollie knew that this was a particularly hard time for her Uncle Remus since he had lot many friends during both of the wars.

Ollie walked towards the red haired group. Victoire was pestering her Dad, asking if he thought that the house elves at Hogwarts were going to make her a birthday cake this year. Percy, who was now in the running to become the new Minister for Magic, was standing next to his brother, as they remembered their brother. George had tears running down his face as he held his small son close, the son who had been named after his fallen twin.

'Ollie!' Her Dad said, beckoning her to come toward the group.

'Dad' she replied, giving him a hug.

'You've grown again' he remarked

'Dad, you only saw me a couple of weeks ago; I haven't grown since the end of the Easter Holidays!'

'How is the quidditch training going?' Harry asked Ollie.

'It's absolutely mad, I'm so glad Heather seems to know practically everything, otherwise who knows how I would get through the amount of homework I'm getting at the moment. Samuels is determined to win the cup this year'

'Well, we're all coming to support you next weekend'

'Everyone?' Ollie asked, gesturing to the huge Weasley family. It put even more pressure on her to play well because this was not only the match for the quidditch cup but also the first time the Weasleys would be seeing her play properly.

Harry's reply was cut off by Teddy running towards them at a great speed. 'Ollie, Uncle Harry, the feast is about to start and if you don't come now, the Weasley's will have eaten it all!'

Harry and Ollie looked at each other, remembering the staggering amount of food the Weasley family had managed to eat over the Christmas holidays and how the old table in the dining room had groaned under the sheer weight of all the food placed upon it on Christmas day.

Together, they walked hand in hand back up towards the castle under the stars. The sun had set on their old life and their new one was about to begin.

* * *

><p><strong>The End...<strong>

**I can't believe that The Promise is now over! Just over six months ago, I started writing this story and now it is finished.**

**A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has read, alerted or added this story to your favourites, I have really appreciated your support and a MASSIVE thankyou to everyone who has reviewed this story sometime over the past 6 months. The reviews have kept me going and have inspired me to finish this story. PLEASE review one last time to let me know what you thought of this chapter or the overal story.**

**Now I can tell you some exciting news...**

**Harry, Ginny and Ollie's stories have not finished yet. There is going to be a SEQUEL! Expect more adventure and drama! I am aiming to post the prologue on SUNDAY with the intention of posting the first chapter next Thursay. I plan to update this story just to alert people when the sequel is published.**

**Please look out for '_The Crystal of Sayan'  
><em>**

** Thank you again and see you soon**

**Cherry :) xx  
><strong>


	30. AN Sequel now up!

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter!**

**Just a quick note to say that if you have not already realised the Sequel is now up! The Pologue was up on Sunday and the first chapter is up today. If you have liked The Promise, I really hope you like The Crystal of Sayan, which you can find by going to my profile. **

_**The Crystal of Sayan**_

_When Ollie Potter started her 7th year at Hogwarts she already had: an over protective father, an annoying boyfriend, two cute siblings and some crazy best friends, she didn't expect this to happen..._

**See you soon!**

**Cherry :)**


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